Stranded In the Void
by JeremyX
Summary: This takes place during Return to the Past, so some things will be explained better. Waldo Franz Schaeffer, still stranded in the Digital Sea, has an unlikely reunion with a very important person, who will send him on a mission with his return to Earth and the fate of three people hanging on him. Crossover with three different series! R&R!
1. A Digital Librarian Almost Kills Me

**A/N:** I needed to get this story up, since it follows with my first fic, "Return To the Past". This is about what Waldo "Franz Hopper" Schaffer tried to tell Jeremy in Chapter 2, but from his perspective.

Also, I don't own Code Lyoko.

* * *

**Stranded in the Void**

Chapter 1 – A Digital Librarian Almost Kills Me

For a long time felt utter nothingness, but then I saw a bright white light.

_Is this it? _I thought to myself. _Am I dead?_

_Is this…heaven?_

But something didn't feel right. I could still feel my heartbeat, so I wasn't dead. As my eyes focused to the light better, I noticed that the light came from two cylindrical florescent light bulbs above me. As I rubbed my eyes and got up, I noticed that I was lying next to a row of books neatly arranged in picture-perfect rows. Even for a somewhat perfectionist like me, I thought this was way too much.

In case you haven't guessed who I am, my real name is Waldo Schaffer, but you would know me as Franz Hopper. For those of you who don't know why I changed my name, I did so to protect my family from those ruthless Black Cobras, who were impersonating agents if the French Secret Service in order for them to get to me without being hunted themselves. Part of their plan worked, as they took my wife. I don't know what happened to her, and I can only assume the worst. All this happened because Project Carthage drew the Cobras to it like a moth to a flame. Carthage was a top-secret program that the government had been working on since computers were invented, and it was designed to infiltrate enemy systems without fail and bring them down from the inside.

You may have heard that I wanted to use Lyoko and XANA to destroy Carthage because I had paranoid theories about the damage it might cause if the Secret Service got their hands on it. But what really happened was that President Jeromé Keller himself called me, telling me that the Cobras had sent him a private message, saying that if they didn't give Carthage to them, they would personally wipe out the whole country of France to get it. President Keller had a bad feeling about Carthage since the start, but after all the pleading the R&D team gave him, he thought it couldn't hurt, if it was for the welfare of France. What he didn't know was that those members who were in Project Carthage were in direct contact with the Black Cobras' new leader, Geraldo Danzkhi.

Because of this new info, which I let the president in on, he gave me a safe haven in the Hermitage under the guise of Franz Hopper, so that I could implement my plan to use Lyoko and XANA to destroy Carthage once and for all. Unfortunately, my cover didn't help my poor Anthea, and I had no choice to escape to Lyoko with my daughter, Aelita, in hopes that XANA would help us. But I was in error, as XANA had gained a will of its own and merged with Carthage instead of destroying it, sent me into the network, stole Aelita's memory, and forced me to shut down Lyoko. After Jeremy reactivated it almost ten years later, I helped him help Aelita get her human self back, and stop XANA for good. You may have thought that I sacrificed myself to bring that goal to fruition, but I actually used a very clever replica of me, so convincing, that not even XANA could detect it. My daughter was no doubt horrified, however, at the thought of my death, but my action was necessary to destroy XANA for good.

But it appears that the effort of creating that replica had taken a lot out of me, and I fell unconscious while still in the Network, or the Internet, whichever you choose to call it. I guessed I ended up here. Now the only questions are, where is here, and how would I get back to Lyoko, or better yet, back to Earth?

I could tell from the rows of bookcases that this was some sort of digital library. Perhaps it was a reference site. As I took a better look around, I saw many people taking books out of the shelves, some reading a small part of the books and putting them back, while some continued reading the books for a long while. It was obvious that none of them could or would interact with me, so I decided that the best thing would be to find a site administrator to find out my current location. I took a look at my watch to see the time, but when I looked at my left wrist, I noticed my watch had transformed into a small computer, which covered half of my forearm. Having never seen this before, I tapped on one of the keys on the side, and the device opened up, and the display screen showed that not only had it been a month since the fall of XANA, but also that I was in the search engine on the Russian Wikipedia.

"I…was out that long?" I said to myself. "Good grief. That must have been some program."

Suddenly, I felt someone walk up to me. I turned around and noticed what appeared to be a woman in a common librarian outfit. I felt something was off about her, but I didn't know what it was.

"Do you need help with anything, sir?" she asked. She was looking at me, so I reasoned that she was conscious of my presence.

"Uh…yes," I responded, hesitantly, "I'm looking for the administrator of this site."

"For what purpose?" she queried.

"I want someone to help me find the exit," I answered, "unless you can help me do that, ma'am."

She flashed a smile. "Of course I can help you leave this site…

Waldo Franz Schaffer."

I gasped and stepped back. "How do you know my real name? Who are you?"

The librarian snickered. "You should know by now, creator of Lyoko, the world which held captive the greatest program created by man. I am an agent of Carthage, and I am here to exact my revenge for its destruction by destroying its destroyer!"

With that, the area around me flickered as the woman's hands started crackling with lightning, and I instinctively ran as far away from her as I could get. However, no sooner had the first wave of lightning struck than she chased after me, shouting,

"Don't run away from me, Schaffer! If you're really the great creator of Lyoko, then fight me like a man, and don't cower like that sniveling little boy you so highly trusted!"

_Fight you with what?_ I thought to myself. _I don't have any weapons or powers like Jeremy's friends. Even Jeremy has powers like them, even though he never uses them._ Just then, I noticed I was wearing a different set of clothes than my old white lab coat, red shirt, and khakis. I was dressed in a futuristic Roman combat suit of armor with a red cloak and brown spiked boots, and a large image of the Eye of Lyoko on my breastplate. I also had an old-looking rifle, equipped with twin bayonets, strapped to my back, and I was clutching an intricate staff that seemed to be mechanical, yet natural as well. I say this because it seemed to be made out of both wood and metal. The staff was perfectly straight, apart from a knife-like protrusion that came from the bottom of it, and a glowing blue sphere, with the Eye of Lyoko shimmering inside, on the top.

"Looks like I thought too soon," I said to myself as I drew the rifle out from its holster and fired it at the now-glowing mass of energy that was the Carthage agent. The gun did not shoot a normal bullet as I anticipated, but shot a small ray of lighting, which struck the creature and caused it to become magnetized to the floor. I took this as an opportunity to escape, and ran into the central hub, or main page, of the site, where I was surrounded by droves of people from almost every nationality. I had to take great care not to get trampled by the masses or attract unnecessary attention to myself. Unfortunately, I found that last part to be difficult as a young man in a troll costume walked up to me.

"Dude," he said, observing my outfit, "boss duds. You know how I can score one, or did you make 'em yourself?"

"Um…" I stuttered, "Yes, I did make it myself. No, I can't tell you how to do it yourself. Sorry."

Just then, I noticed a few very familiar figures coming from behind me. They wore all black suits, and wore sunglasses that were so dark that you couldn't see their eyes. I suppose you could call them our very own Men in Black, but they were really members of the Black Cobras disguised as agents of our secret police force, though no one knows that but me, my friends, my daughter, and my daughter's friends, whose parents are also my friends. I gulped and ran as far away from them as I could, while trying not to draw their attention to me, but that last part was for naught, as I saw them chase after me shouting, "Stop right there, Schaffer!"

Suddenly, someone in a gray cloak pulled over his or her head signaled to me to follow him or her. I took this as my only chance of escaping my pursuers, and ducked with him or her into a dark alley. The mystery person led me down a number of dark corridors until we reached a door with an old flashing red 'emergency exit' sign over the top of the doorframe. The person motioned me to follow him or her through the door.

"Wait!" I stopped. "Where will this door take me to?"

The person did not answer, but motioned once again for me to follow. Just then, I had an idea.

"If I follow you," I said, "do you agree to tell me where I will end up, who you are, and why you are helping me?"

My plan was a success, as the figure nodded violently, and opened the door. On the other side of the doorway, there was nothing but whiteness, but it was better than the alternative, so I jumped through the doorway, shutting it behind me. Instantly, I was in a place I knew all too well. After all, it was my home. I was in my living room, and I noticed the old grand piano, which was still in its fine condition. I then noticed the figure that led me to my old abode in the couch adjacent to the piano. Just then, something looked familiar about this person. I realized from the shape of the deep blue jeans, and the figure's slender stature, that it was a woman. Her cloak was off, but a gray hood was still pulled over her head, which was connected to her long-sleeved gray shirt.

"It's been too long, Waldo," she said, noticing me.

"All right, I want answers," I said, "like: who are you? How do you know my name? How did I get here, and why were you helping me?"

"In reverse order," she replied, "You have a mission to complete so that you can get home to Aelita, I brought you here, and I've known you for thirty years, and you've know me for just as long. After all…"

As she said this, she pulled off her hood, which exposed her face. I was stunned. I was looking at a woman in her early forties, with a cleanly brushed back lock of bright pink hair. As my jaw dropped open when I saw this, she finished her statement, which confirmed my beliefs.

"…I'm your wife."

* * *

Dun, dun, DUUUUUUUUNNNNN! It's just the first chapter, and already there's a cliffhanger! I don't like them, but I needed to get part of this up. Besides, the whole of what would happen next would be too long for this. Well, see you next chapter!


	2. I Meet My Dead Wife

**A/N: Here I am with a new chapter! I'm sorry I don't update more often, but I really am still strugling with my writer's block by only writing two stories at a time, and I am constantly bothered by my busy schedule that trying to apply for college entails.**

**I still don't own Code Lyoko. If I did, then nothing Code Lyoko-related would not be in English, and we'd all be watching our Fanfictions as AU cartoons.**

* * *

Chapter 2 – I Meet My Dead Wife

I fell on the floor in utter shock. It was impossible. There was no way that Anthea could be here, with me, in the Internet because she never even saw the completed supercomputer, much less went to Lyoko. And yet, here she was, looking at her husband, expecting me not to have reacted the way I reacted. For a long time I couldn't move or even make any sound whatsoever. Then, I utterly collapsed on the floor.

"Anthea," I said, staring up at her. "No… it's not possible. You're dead. The Cobras found you. They killed you to get to me!"

At this, she smiled and shook her head. "That's what they thought, but as you can see, I am far from dead."

I stood up, and brushed myself off, but still asked on, "Well how are you here? I never told you about Lyoko or my work on Carthage, so how are you here in the Network?"

She giggled - a wonderful sound that I haven't heard in far too long - and said, "When are you going to learn that no man can keep a secret from his wife?"

I flushed a little at this, and said, "But that doesn't explain how you got here! No one has ever used the scanners but me, Aelita, and her friends."

She grinned at the corner of her mouth. "Who said I used those scanners?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? There may have been a second supercomputer, but were no other scanners."

"Were there?" she asked me. "True, those scanners were built by you and were only in the lab at the factory, but who says there weren't other scanners? And what if they were hooked up to… oh, say… the supercomputer at headquarters that synchronizes with the one at the factory?"

"What?" I gasped. This was a new piece of info. How could there have been two sets of scanners? "Who built them?"

"You're looking at her," she smiled proudly.

My mouth hit the floor. I had no idea that my wife, who had been missing for years, could have been the one behind the construction of this second set of scanners. The thought never occurred to me because I didn't think it was possible. That last part became more prevalent, and I spoke up.

"Wait, how can that be? You were kidnapped by the Cobras before Aelita and I escaped into Lyoko."

"True," she answered, "but I was rescued by a very handsome young man from the Men in Black who was really a real agent for the President."

"Who was he?' I asked.

"Do you need to ask?" she said, half-laughing. "He was your friend, Michael Belpois, and I happened to meet his son, too." She sighed. "That boy was so cute when he was a toddler."

"What? Michael?" I knew very well who Jeremy's father was. After all, we were best friends since childhood, but he never mentioned anything about him rescuing Anthea to me before the whole XANA incident. I looked at her in disbelief, when something else occurred to me. She looked exactly the same as when I saw her before she disappeared. I did as well, but seeing no change on her, when she said she was still alive all this time was shocking to me. She noticed my shock, and smiled reassuringly.

"I know what you're thinking, honey," she said, "and yes, I look the same as I did ten years ago. That's because I virtualized myself in here of my own free will. I've been surfing this highway for all this time, looking for you."

"Really?" I said, "All this time… you were searching for me?"

She shrugged. "I missed you, dear."

I smiled. "I missed you too, sweetheart." I felt something I hadn't felt in what seemed to be forever, and I spread my arms out to envelop my beloved in a warm embrace, and she fell into it, with me crying softly.

"All this time," I sobbed, "I never stopped thinking about you. I was so worried about what happened to you. Some nights I couldn't sleep, and neither could Aelita. I was so alone for so long, it nearly drove me mad."

She sniffed a little. "I'm sorry, Waldo. There was no way to reach you. I've been… traveling a lot in the Network, and I couldn't find you and I didn't want to show myself to Aelita until I found you again."

I released my wife from my grasp and looked at her. "What kind of traveling? How did you do it in the first place? Do you have a vehicle like the Skidbladnir Jeremy developed?"

"I had something like that," she answered, "only ours came first."

"Ours?" I asked. "What do you mean 'ours'?"

"The R&D team, who created the first supercomputer, created a scanner that was more like a platform," she said, "and this platform literally warped you into the system, and you could travel into the Network. The team created a vehicle that could safely transverse this stream of data without danger of your own data being deleted."

"What was it called?" I asked, out of curiosity.

"It was the original Skidbladnir," she answered.

"The _original _Skidbladnir?" I said. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean there was a Skid before your friends' Skid," she repeated. "And this 'Skid' was designed by a squad of experts in the R&D team. It's bigger, faster, and better equipped for the Network than the Skid you knew." She laughed. "Plus it's not completely totaled."

Even I snickered at this, and then had to ask, "So where is it?"

"Right there," she pointed out the window. I looked in that direction, and saw, out the window, the vast currents of the digital sea. Next to the place in the Network where we were, there was a large submarine that looked like Jeremy's Skidbladnir, but it was bigger, and the main body was shaped more like an actual submarine. The Navskids were also bigger, and looked like you could sit up in them, not lie in them like Aelita's friends did in their Skid.

"Well," I said after a pause, "the team sure knew their codes. So can this take us back to the scanner at headquarters and bring us back to Earth?"

Her face fell to the ground. I noticed this, and frowned.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There's something you don't know about this Skid, Waldo," she said. "It doesn't just travel through the Network.

It can travel through time."

"WHAT?" I shouted. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! The Skidbladnir, a time machine? "That has to be impossible! Time travel is the stuff of fantasy, of comic books!"

"I know it works," Anthea said, "because I've used it."

I looked at her and I saw jaded eyes that told no lie. I knew she was right. It sounded crazy, but she was right.

"Is this related to how we can escape this world and get back to our own?" I asked.

"Yes," she started, "because I am charging you with a mission."

"What kind of mission?" I asked again.

"Three different people throughout the course of time have met their end too soon," she explained, "and we need them to change the future for the better."

"Who are these people?"

"They are good people who have been badly wronged by the hands of Fate," she said, "so we must go and help them, or else the Skidbladnir cannot return us to Earth."

"Wait, the Skid is making us do this whole mission?" I gaped. "A machine can't think!"

"Funny you should say that," Anthea smirked, "considering a machine nearly killed you."

I flustered. "XANA was an Artificial Intelligence, not just an ordinary machine."

"Plus some pretty impossible things have been happening a lot as of late," she added.

"True," I replied. I stood up and offered my hand to my wife. "Alright, let's go. If we want to get home, and if this is the only way, then let's not waste any more time."

Anthea smiled and took my hand. "Thank you, dear."

She opened the door, and a burst of white light engulfed my vision before I noticed we were inside the new (or old, I should say) Skidbladnir. The inside was indeed bigger, and more like the inside of an actual submarine. The Navskids were still attached to the sides, but looked more like escape pods rather than miniature jets. Also, there were hatches to access each Navskid, and the central portion of the machine had twin command chairs. All of the programmed machinery looked extremely advanced for its time. Speaking of time, as soon as the two of us sat down in the chairs, with me in the front and my wife in the back, a display showed a set time below our current time. The display read like this:

Current Location: April 12, 2007 5:30 PM, Moscow, Russia

Destination: June 12, 1995 10:26 AM, Kanto Region, Japan

"What time is that?" I asked myself. "And why is it Japan?"

"Well," Anthea said happily, "there's only one way to find out, honey."

I nodded, and pressed a large red button on the control panel. Though I had no idea how this thing worked, I had seen more than enough movies to know that huge things happened whenever someone pushes the red button. Sure enough, I felt the machine lurch forward, the display vanished, and the Skid started to gain speed little by little, until it went so fast my head was pressed into my headrest. Everything in the digital sea blurred past us in a mess of blue and white, and then everything went bright. If this is what time traveling was like in the movies, I envied their stomachs, because I felt like my guts were trying to leap out of my mouth.

* * *

**And here we go! If you know who my heroes are trying to save first, then please feel free to PM me or comment on this fic. I won't give spoilers, but this will be good!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	3. The Problem With Clones

**A/N: God, I FINALLY was able to get this damn chapter posted after a month of working on all of my stories. Lesson learned: Don't work on more than one story at a time. It's easier that way. Plus, you actually have to have a plan when you're writing so you actually write something and don't just sit in front of a blank screen for hours on end.**

**Oh, yeah, I stil don't own Code Lyoko, or else I'd publish the new books in English in a heartbeat.**

* * *

Chapter 3 – The Problem with Clones

After the light had faded and when I opened my eyes, there were two things I noticed that were strange. The first was that we seemed to be in a small town presumably in this Kanto region the readout on the Skidbladnir had showed us before we made the time-jump. The second was that I saw a girl no more than six years old floating in the sky with four strange creatures with her.

"Who is that and what are those creatures that are flying with her?" I asked myself. I could not help but remark at this. I must have spoken out loud, because Anthea turned to me.

"You've seriously never seen a Pokémon before?" she said to me, half shocked, half disgusted. "And here I thought you were such a great scientist, Wally."

I blushed a little at this. "I told you don't call me Wally. I don't like pet names when they're used with people, primarily with me."

Now, I have heard of these creatures called Pokémon before, but I have never actually seen one before. I personally knew some of the greatest experts on the subject, but I never saw a real Pokémon up close and in person, so Anthea was right about that.

I looked at the creatures again and I recognized three of them. There was a small pale green one with a large deep green plant bulb on its back, a fiery red lizard with a flaming tail, and a light blue turtle with a light brown shell and a curled tail.

"Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle," I said. "That's what they are." I noticed there was something off about them, though. They did not look like how I had seen them in the research books. They had these strange markings on their bodies, which looked like nothing I had ever seen the likes of before in my life. I turned my attention to the fourth Pokémon, and what I saw was truly mind-boggling. It bore similar traits to the legendary Pokémon Mew, but this creature was bigger than the Mew from the books, plus it looked more human-like in appearance. Also, its head had a shape I had never seen before.

"What is that creature?' I thought aloud. "And who is that girl?"

Just then, my gauntlet projected an image of a laboratory with four or five scientists surrounding computers and large tube-like tanks that reminded me of the scanners from the supercomputer. One of the scientists, a tall man in a long white lab coat, looked very firmly at the tubes.

"Doctor Fuji, you have to look at this," one of the female scientists said to the tall scientist.

"What is it?" he asked. His eyes behind his clear glasses widened at the scientist's tone of voice.

"Mewtwo and Ambertwo seem to be communicating with the other clones," she replied. "They must be using telepathy."

The chief scientist placed his hand on one of the two large tubes in front of him.

"So…" he said.

In the one he was not touching, there was the same creature that I had seen in the digital world, but curled up in a fetal position, with its eyes closed, floating in a clear brown liquid. The other tube, the one he was touching, held a strange pinkish light inside it. The scientist sighed.

"Please, let my theories be correct…" he said sadly.

"Amber…"

As he said that name, the feed was cut off, and I stared off into space for about a minute before my wife brought me back to my senses.

"Hey, honey," she prodded my shoulder, "you all right in there?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm okay," I responded. "Hey, did you see that projection from my gauntlet?"

"Oh, that?" she asked. "Yeah, I saw it. It showed you where we really are in the real world, and where this digital world comes from."

"So that was the real world back then?" I gasped, for I had never seen anything like this. "Well, where in the real world are we?"

"We're in the laboratorial headquarters of Team Rocket," she responded.

My eyes widened in shock. How could I not know about Team Rocket? Who else is most well known for mass thefts of not only rare species of Pokémon, but mass amounts of money and expensive, high-level technology that they would use to endanger people and Pokémon across the world? They're not as insane as the Cobras, but they're bad in their own sick, twisted ways.

"Why are we in a horrible place like this?" I asked. "I thought you said we were going to help someone, not get involved with criminals like these Team Rocket lunatics!"

"Things aren't what they appear to be, dear," Anthea chided. "Take that girl, for instance. Do you recognize her?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, observing the girl and her companions floating in the air. Anthea may have had a point; I couldn't help but think I had seen this girl somewhere before. Then there was that Team Rocket scientist. I felt I had also seen him somewhere before, but I couldn't put my finger on where I met either of them and who they were. I then dwindled on the names.

Amber…

Fuji…

Amber Fuji!

That was it! That girl was Amber Fuji! I also recognized the scientist from the vision from the real world was the Pokémon evolutionary theorist Dr. Julian Fuji, who was Amber's father! I thought I had seen them before! I met them once at a science symposium when Julian was conducting his theories on Pokémon genetics and the history of the legendary Pokémon Mew. I never thought he would end up as a genetic researcher for that nefarious Team Rocket, nor did I expect to find his daughter floating around in this digital world, but then remembered a newspaper story detailing her death in a tragic car crash.

"Anthea," I said to her, "how can that girl be Amber Fuji if she's dead?"

"Well, she didn't die, per se," she replied, "it seems God let her soul remain on Earth because He had other plans for her."

"Like what?" I asked, out of curiosity. I had no idea that God could do this, but then again, He IS God after all.

"That creature up there," she said, pointing up to the Mew-like life form, "has been subjected to, or rather will be subjected, to a horrible series of experiments to fulfill these madmen's desires to create the most powerful Pokémon in the world: Mewtwo."

"Mewtwo?" the name sounded familiar, but it wasn't ringing any bells yet. Changing the subject slightly, I said, "What about those other Pokémon?"

"Those are also Pokémon clones made by Team Rocket," she said, "and they will be saved, along with Amber."

"How?" I said, but soon saw another vision projecting from my gauntlet, and it looked like there was trouble brewing in the lab outside.

"Doctor, we're losing the Pokémon clones! We're…also losing her, too!" one of the doctors shouted to Dr. Fuji. I observed the screens on the laboratory computers, and noticed the vital sign readings of the Pokémon were fading rapidly. I looked at the Pokémon in the digital world, and was shocked to see their forms, along with Amber's vanishing into thin air! I turned to Anthea in a panic, worried for those creatures, and saw a strange device on her arm which, unlike my gauntlet, covered nearly her entire arm.

"What is that?" I asked. "What's happening to Amber and those Pokémon?"

"The screens are correct in saying that their vital signs are fading," she responded, "because I am using a program that is, at this moment, taking those creatures and the girl out of this world and into the Skidbladnir. It is unfortunate at what this will entail for Mewtwo."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He'll get upset over losing his first friend, and his psychic powers will go out of control, and the scientists will be forced to wipe out his memories of Amber in order to restrain him."

"That's terrible!" I cried. "How can they stand to do such a thing?"

"All will be well for Mewtwo, trust me honey," Anthea patted my shoulder. "I've seen his future, and he'll be just fine, but now we need to leave this world. It's not safe anymore."

As she said this, the world grew darker around us. The buildings faded, followed by the streets, and then the stars, then the moon. Before the sky disappeared completely, I nodded to my wife, and we punched a series of numbers on our gauntlets, and we faded from the collapsing digital world.

When we reemerged into the inside of the Skidbladnir, I noticed that Anthea couldn't have been more right. Amber was lying in a bundled heap on the floor, near the front of the ship, and with a look of peaceful slumber. However, there was something different about her. She had a belt wrapped around her waist, and there were three red spherical objects clipped onto it.

"Aren't those things Poké Balls?" I asked Anthea.

"They are," she replied, "and they contain her friends, in case you were wondering. This way, it saves space."

As Anthea spoke, Amber stirred, rubbed her eyes, and sat up. She opened her eyes and stared in wonder at her new surroundings, then turned to face us.

"Huh? Where am I?" she asked sleepily. "Who are you people?"

"My name is Waldo Schaeffer," I replied, "and this is my wife, Anthea."

She waved at Amber. "It's nice to meet you, Amber."

"Hello," she said, "but where am I? And where are my friends?"

"They're right there," I said, pointing at the new objects attached to her waist. She took them up and looked at them curiously before realizing what these objects were.

"Oh, they're in these Poké Balls!" she sighed, then looked at me. "May I call them out?"

"Sure, I don't see why not," I responded.

With that, she pressed the buttons on each device, and the balls opened up, and three white bursts of light erupted from them, releasing the Pokémon I had seen before into the Skid. At first she looked happy to see them, but then her face fell again.

"Where's Mewtwo?" she asked.

I frowned a little. "He's still back in that world inside that computer."

"Is he going to be okay?" she asked worriedly.

I looked at her for a long time and did not answer, because I didn't know the answer to that question. Just then, though, Anthea came up and smiled at the little girl.

"He's going to be just fine," she said calmly. "He will go under many trials, but they will make him one of the strongest Pokémon in the world."

"Really?" she said, her eyes sparkling. "How do you know this? And I still don't know where I am, in case you were wondering."

"Well, that's quite a story, young lady." I chuckled lightly as the Skidbladnir sped through the digital sea.

* * *

**A/N: Oh, yeah, I went there! See the Pokemon crossover there? Just wait until my next one in the next chapter!**

**Spoiler - Chapter Title - Chapter 4: Noah-Boy on a Boat**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	4. Noah Boy on a Boat

**A/N: Here's when the story gets longer, so awesome! The plot is better moving forward here, and a big change is coming! Hope you enjoy it to the end!**

**P.S. I STILL don't own Code Lyoko, Pokemon, or (spoiler alert) Yu-Gi-Oh!**

* * *

Chapter 4 – Noah-Boy on a Boat

My conversation with Amber had gone on for about six minutes as I did my best to explain the complex situation we were in to an eight-year-old girl, but she looked like she knew almost exactly what I was talking about. She nodded her head at every break, and asked questions that I didn't even know she knew how to ask.

"…and the Skid led us to you, and here we are." I finished.

"So are we still in my time, or are we in yours?" she asked.

"I think we're still in your time, Amber," I answered. "We haven't made another jump yet."

As those words left my mouth, a beeping noise came from the Skid's navigational system.

"I may have spoken too soon," I said, jumping into the command chair. Sure enough, another screen popped up with the same display I saw earlier, but with a different start and end set in. This time, the screen read:

Current Location: June 12, 1995 10:26 AM, Kanto Region, Japan

Destination: August 29, 2002, 2:29 PM, Alcatraz Island, near Sea of Japan

Before I asked the question, Anthea said, "No, that's not the Alcatraz you're thinking of. This is an old private Japanese military base, but we still have business there."

Shrugging, I pushed the red button once more, and we started to lurch forwards as the time warp pulled us along.

"You may want to hold on to something, Amber," I mentioned to our passenger. "This could get hairy. Get in one of the Navskids."

With that, she recalled her Pokémon, and pulled on the handle at the side of one of the Navskids, and jumped inside. Suddenly, the speed increased, the strange lights returned, and after what seemed like an hour when it was only a few minutes, the lights vanished and the machine stopped. The stop was so abrupt, that I nearly fell out of my seat. I looked out the window, and I noticed the outside was not that different from the digital sea from back in my time. When we went to Amber's time, it looked - how shall I put this - older, rawer, as a way of reflecting the fact that the Internet was fairly new at the time.

As I thought about this, I noticed an interesting logo on the side of a pillar near our location in the Network. It looked like a K with a C hooked into the bottom right leg. I knew that logo very well.

"Anthea," I said to my wife, "this military base is owned by KaibaCorp, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said with a small hint of annoyance. "We'll be going to places like this, so you should grow a thicker skin, honey."

"Okay, okay," I said, holding my hands up in a mock surrender. Obviously there was someone we needed to save here, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Just then, something occurred to me.

"Hey, if we're here now," I said, "why didn't we end up in the digital world here like with Amber?"

"We didn't warp straight into that world," she said, trying hard not to laugh, "But you fell unconscious from the effort it took to warp. I translated us into the world while you were out."

I blushed rather profusely, but I contained myself. "All right," I said, "so we just translate into this world now?"

She nodded, and then pressed a series of keys on the control pad on her side of the ship, and said, "See you around, honey." Suddenly, without a warning of any kind, she completely vanished. Needless to say, I was surprised, but then remembered that that's what translation does. As if to exemplify this, Amber disappeared as well, then I felt as if I was being chucked from one place to another in an instant, and when I blinked, I was standing in the middle of a street. On one side of me there was a vast, open park with a few scattered trees benches lining a walkway. On the other side was a metropolitan skyline, lined with extremely tall buildings.

One building caught my eye for three reasons. First, it was the tallest building as far as I could see. Secondly, I knew from the architecture that it was the world headquarters for the Kaiba Corporation, or KaibaCorp, for short. Thirdly, there was a most unusual fixture on top of the skyscraper: a huge red mass of energy with a yellowish sort of energy fixated on top of it. The mass of yellow energy seemed to be trying to keep the other mass from moving. This was proven by the red mass flailing about, frantically yelling and screaming. I could hear words, but I didn't hear them clearly enough, so Anthea, Amber, and I moved further to the source of the noise.

"I command you to release me, Noah!" A loud and angry voice pierced my ears. I saw that it had come from the red creature. "You can't do this to me!"

"I can and I must, Father," a young male voice came out, "I owe my stepbrothers and my friends for what I did to them by saving them from you!"

"What's going on?" I asked Anthea, shaken from the heated conversation between the two entities. "What are those things?"

"Those _people_, honey," she corrected me. "The yellow one is the subject of our mission here. Now stand back."

Before I could inquire as to why, I did, and she raised her hand, and a large thick chain burst out from under the ground and shot towards the red creature. As it wrapped around it, its shape and the shape of the yellow creature changed in two ways. First, the yellow one fell from the red one, shocked at the sudden intrusion Anthea made. Secondly, both creatures took a more human appearance. The red one dwindled down in size to form a middle-aged man in a scarlet business suit with gray hair, and a matching moustache. The yellow one took a smaller, more slender shape and what became of it was a boy, no more than twelve, with pale green hair, blue eyes, and a white uniform that I knew was worn by schoolboys in Japan.

"What in the world…?" I started, but stopped when the boy suddenly vanished and so did everyone else, including myself. When I blinked again, we were all inside the Skidbladnir. Just then, my gauntlet showed yet another vision of the real world. This time, there was a large blimp taking off from a small island, which had a sort of technological look to it. There were two people running as fast as they could to get on the craft before it got too far off the ground. Some people on the craft held out their arms for the other to grab hold of, and the running people jumped and caught hold of the railing, and pulled themselves up into the craft, which took off at once.

I realized that the timing couldn't have been better, since there was a missile flying straight at them with blinding speed. By the time they were a safe enough distance away from the mechanical island, the missile had made crushing impact with the island, blowing it up in a huge explosion. When it did, the video feed was cut off almost instantly. I shook for a moment, but then looked around at the familiar inside of the Skid, then faced the boy, who looked more shocked than me.

"Huh? Where am I?" he asked, looking at me. "And who are you?"

"My name is Waldo Schaeffer," I said, "and I think we have just saved your life."

"Saved my…?" the boy trailed off, and then snapped up, and whipped his head around frantically. "What about Seto, Mokuba, and the others?" he barked. "Where are they? Are they okay? Did they make it?"

"Um, I'm sorry," I said, "I don't know those people, but I did see people in an airship fly away from the island as it was blasted away to Kingdom Come."

"Whew," he sighed, "at least I know they're all right."

"Now to my question," I said, "which is this: who are you?"

"It's Noah," he quickly responded, looking at me. "Noah Kaiba."

"Kaiba?" I gasped, for I realized who this kid was. "You're Noah Kaiba, son of Gozaburo Kaiba, founder of KaibaCorp?"

"Yes," Noah replied quietly, looking at his shoes the whole time.

I looked at Anthea, surprised. "Didn't he die young, too?" I asked her, and she smiled.

"Well, I _did_ say these were people who met their end too early," she replied. "Or did you just not listen well enough?"

I flushed a little at her tone, and then turned to face Noah, who was still rather confused. Likewise, I was confused at the fact that we just rescued two kids who were practically dead, and here they were before me.

"You'll have to forgive him," Anthea said to Noah, "he's still new to this whole 'saving people who died as kids' thing."

"Well, we are too," Amber commented. "By the way, my name is Amber. Nice to meet you, Noah." She held out her hand to him, and he shook it.

"Nice to meet you, too Amber," he said back, smiling.

Suddenly, the whole digital world outside turned a dark shade of red, and an alarm sounded from the control console of the Skid. Anthea and I rushed to our positions, and a display screen descended from the ceiling, which showed several small crafts shooting through the digital sea towards us at amazing speeds.

"Navskids?" I said. "But I thought there weren't any others besides ours and the kids'!"

"That's not all, Waldo!" Anthea added. "Take a look at the zoom!"

As she spoke, the image zoomed in closer to reveal that seated in each Navskid were tall men in black suits with black sunglasses, the sight of which nearly made me pass out from fear.

"The Men in Black…" I breathed, shaken. "Carthage's personal hit squad!"

"What's going on?" Amber asked, in a scared voice.

"We're under attack!" I shouted out instantly. "These guys aren't someone to take lightly, so we'll take over things here! You kids need to keep yourselves safe!"

As I said this, I noticed Noah trying to open one of the doors to one of the Navskids on our ship.

"What are you doing, Noah?" I barked. "I told you to take cover!"

"I can fight, Mr. Schaeffer," Noah said firmly. "Not only am I a smart thinker, I am a Duelist, and Duelists don't know the meaning of the words 'run away'!"

"Duelist?" I asked.

"He plays the Duel Monsters card game," Anthea explained. "It's very popular, honey. I'm surprised someone as knowledgeable doesn't know about it."

"I knew about the game," I said quickly, "I just didn't know what they who play it were called."

"My Pokémon can fight too, Mr. Schaeffer!" Amber piped up, showing off her Poké Balls. "Let us fight, too!"

I looked at these kids for a long time, and all of a sudden, I was reminded of five familiar kids who felt the same way, and I couldn't help smiling.

"All right," I said. "But just be careful. This place isn't like your playground. You go down, you go down for good. I just saved your life, and it wouldn't be polite to go and die on me now!"

"No problem, sir!" both the kids cheered, then entered the Navskids at the sides. I, in turn, gripped the controls of the Skid, and flashed a look at my wife, who smiled at me, and faced the images of the Men in Black's Navskids.

"Fasten your seat belts," I said harshly. "You're going down."

* * *

**Da battle cometh! Wait and see what cometh next!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	5. The Kids Slay an Artificial Demon

**A/N: Here we go with Chapter 5!**

**P.S. I don't own Code Lyoko, Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh!**

* * *

Chapter 5 – The Kids Slay an Artificial Demon

"Are all weapons systems online, Anthea?" I barked to my wife in the co-pilot seat behind me.

"Affirmative," she responded quickly.

"Then, as those kids would say, let's blast some scum," I grinned. With that, I pushed the control bars forward and the Skid shot forward. The Navskids of the Men in Black followed us from behind and the Navskids from our Skid detached, shooting towards the agent's pods.

"I hope those kids will be okay," I said under my breath.

"They'll be fine, dear," my wife assured me, though I was still worried.

I noticed the first Navskid, piloted by Amber, fire an array of shots at the first Agent's Navskid. He dodged the first wave, deflected the second, but was caught by an energy field that Amber fired after the deflector shield dissipated. After the Navskid was rendered immobile, she fired a digital torpedo, which quickly and effectively destroyed the Agent's Navskid and the Agent along with it.

"All right!" I heard Amber shout over the com system. "I got one!"

"Great going, Amber," I said. "Don't get cocky!"

"You just took that from Star Wars," Anthea quipped, "didn't you dear?"

"That I did," I grinned. "The moment was there, and I couldn't help myself."

"Hang on, sir!" Noah called from the other Navskid. "I'm going for the other ones!"

As he said this, his Navskid shot in the direction of the agent's Navskids, and fired a series of virtual rockets, which dealt a vicious blow to the enemy line. Sometimes it took up to three rockets to down a Navskid, other times they went down with just one. Within a minute, the enemy was almost eradicated, save for one last Navskid.

"I'm out of rockets, sir!" Noah shouted.

"Those guys blasted me with an EMP shot too," Amber said, "so I'm out of ammo as well!"

"Then leave the last one to me," I said. With that, I pressed a button on the left control stick, and a digital warhead missile shot out at the last Navskid, completely destroying it before it had a chance to react. After the dust cleared, the kids' Navskids returned to the main ship, and they reemerged into the control room.

"Whew," I said, reclining in my seat. "That was a close one. Good job there, kids."

"Thanks," Amber said. "Though it was a little scary at first."

"Yeah," Noah added. "But at least we're safe now."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" a deep new voice rang out from nowhere. We all jumped at hearing this new voice, but Anthea and I tried to keep our composure. There was no sense in panicking in front of the kids.

"Who's there?" I shouted out. "Show yourself!"

"With pleasure, Dr. Schaeffer," the voice responded with a heavy Russian accent. A split second later, a looming figure materialized into the control room. He was dressed in a silver striped business suit with a pin of the flag of Soviet Russia on the left flap of his suit. He had clean, brushed back slate colored hair and had piercing yellow green eyes, eyes almost like that of a lizard.

"Who are you?" I asked. "How did you get in this ship? What are you doing here?"

"In order, Dr. Schaeffer," the man responded, "my name is Gustafv Kahril. I am a member of the Soviet branch of the Black Cobras, code named 'Shadow Striker.' Yet, I do not truly stand before you, as this is a digital clone of me sent into the network for the sole purpose of finding and eliminating anyone and everyone who stand with you." He wrapped his speech up with a curt smile on his sharpened face.

"Hate to have you go a long way for nothing," I said shortly, "but I have no intention of surrendering myself to the likes of you."

"I had a feeling you might say that, Doctor," he replied, "so I took the liberty of transporting your vessel into a Guardian, remaining motionless in the Network."

I gasped, and looked out the window. Sure enough, the blue scenery of the digital sea had vanished, and we were floating in a space of utter blackness, like a starless and moonless night.

"The only way you can escape is to defeat me in battle," Kahril said, snapping us out of our trance. I did a double take, and noticed that the 'clone' of Kahril had another clone next to him.

"There's two of him!" Anthea said, matter-of-factly.

"That's right," the first responded.

"And you two kids will fight a different clone with your respective weapons," the second finished.

The first clone pulled something out form his jacket pocket, and it showed to be three familiar round objects.

"This one has Pokémon!" Amber shouted.

The second clone, in turn, thrust out his left arm and a strange device materialized onto it.

"That one has a Duel Disk!" Noah added.

"Duel Disk?" I asked, for I had no clue what that was.

"It's a machine used to play Duel Monsters that uses holograms to project images of the monsters and effects of the cards," Anthea explained.

"Oh," I said. "I see."

"Shall we then?" the first clone said, raising his hand into the air. Suddenly, a dark mist spread around us, and we found ourselves facing two battlefields, and each one bore a likeness to a soccer field, but the first had the Pokémon symbol carved into the middle, and the center of the other bore the image of a gigantic Duel Monsters card. The first clone moved to the first field, and the second clone moved to the second field. Noah and Amber followed suit, Amber opened up her Poké Balls which expelled her friends, and Noah brandished his Duel Disk.

"Let's shall," Amber said.

"With pleasure," Noah added.

A moment's pause and the kids shouted out different phrases.

"Let's battle!" Amber shouted.

"Time to Duel!" Noah yelled.

As they said this, a force field flashed around each battlefield. The kids were trapped! But I knew they would be alright, as this was to be their job: fighting these slime bags wherever they were.

"This battle will be three-on-three, with each Trainer using three Pokémon all at once," the first clone said to Amber. "During this time, the Trainer must give each Pokémon an order, and the battle is over when all three Pokémon on either side are unable to battle. Now…

BATTLE BEGIN!"

With that, he released all three of his Pokémon, which revealed to be a chameleon-like creature, a black dog with bones all over its body, and what looked like a pure shadow with large menacing red eyes. Amber followed, releasing Bulbasaurtwo, Charmandertwo, and Squirtletwo.

"Kecleon, use Fury Swipes! Houndoom, use Flamethrower! Gengar, use Shadow Ball!"

"Bulbasaurtwo, Bullet Seed! Charmandertwo, Flamethrower! Squirtletwo, Water Gun!"

Amber's team dodged the attacks, and their attacks all landed on Kecleon, one after the other. I noticed when the Bullet Seed hit, it didn't seem to do much, but when Flamethrower hit, Kecleon yelped in pain, and he did even more when Water Gun hit last.

"What was that about?" I asked Anthea.

"Kecleon's ability: Color Change," she replied. "It can change to the type of the move that hit it last. Amber took advantage of that to put it in a loop of sorts. Fire beats Grass, Water beats Fire, Grass beats Water, and the cycle goes on."

"That's brilliant!" I exclaimed, the turned to observe Noah's Duel.

"I'll start things off," Noah shouted. "I draw!" He then did just that, looked closely at the cards in his hand, and then nodded. "For my first move, I summon Dunames Dark Witch!" He placed a card on his Duel Disk, and a hologram sparkled into life, portraying the image of the monster on the card, a female angel. "With that done," he added, "I play two cards face down and end my turn!" The images of the two cards materialized on the ground and Noah lowered his device.

"It's my move, then; I draw." Gustafv #2 said. "I summon Zure, Knight of Dark World!" A warrior of bones and darkness appeared form the card's image. "Furthermore, I activate the Spell Card Dark World Dealings, allowing each of us to draw one card form our Decks as long as we discard one card afterwards."

They did just that, but Gustafv looked like he was ecstatic about the card he discarded, and I soon saw from what happened next that he was.

"I activate the special ability of Broww, Huntsman of Dark World from my Graveyard! Since he was discarded due to an effect, I can draw another card form my Deck. With that, I end my turn as well. Your move, little man."

"Very well! I draw!" Noah shouted. "I summon Airknight Parshath! Also, I activate the Field Spell, The Sanctuary in the Sky! Parshath, Attack his Zure, Knight of Dark World!" The angel creature tore through the skeleton knight, and I saw a display near the Gustafv clone give a readout which read:

LP 4000 - 3900

"Since his monster was stronger than Gustafv's," Anthea said, "The difference in their Attack Points got cut out of Gustafv's Life Points."

"Gotcha," I said.

"Why thank you, boy," he grinned wildly. "Since I took battle damage, I can summon Tragoedia from my hand!" The image of a towering demonic monster suddenly appeared, followed by Gustafv laughing loudly. "This beast gains 600 Attack and Defense Points for every card in my hand, and I count four! That means he's packing 2400 ATK and DEF, which will grow to 3000 on my next turn!"

"Hrmn," Noah growled. "Fine, since you took battle damage from Parshath's attack, I get to draw a card. I play three cards facedown and end my turn."

I turned my attention back to Amber, who had just knocked out Kecleon. Unfortunately, I saw that she couldn't pull another stunt like that. Her Pokémon looked pretty tired, probably the effects of this new battle style, and from the look on Kahril's face, he was about to take full advantage of the situation.

"Houndoom," he barked, "use Faint Attack on Bulbasaurtwo! Gengar, use Shadow Punch on Charmandertwo!"

Unfortunately for Amber, neither of those moves could possibly miss their targets. This was proven when both Pokémon made crushing contact with Amber's friends, sending them hurtling backwards into the shield.

"Oh, no!" I cried, but was unable to do any more. Suddenly, both Pokémon got up, gave a nod to each other, and started glowing brightly, which led to their shape changing as well. After a while, the glow faded, and two bigger, stronger creatures stood where two smaller Pokémon once stood.

"It can't be!" Gustafv shouted.

"It can and is!" Amber cried happily. "Bulbasaur and Charmander have evolved into Ivysaur and Charmeleon! Now, Ivysaur, use Razor Leaf on Gengar! Charmeleon, use Rock Smash on Houndoom!"

Both Pokémon charged forward, and Charmeleon's strong punch to Houndoom's back was enough to deflate it, and cause it to collapse. Gustafv growled as he recalled his Pokémon.

"Can't take the heat?" Amber teased. "Then get out of the digital world! Charmeleon, use Flamethrower full power!" The stream of flame, renewed and empowered by its evolution, shot at the Shadow Pokémon, and caused it to collapse as well. The clone started twisting and screaming until the image disappeared completely, along with the barrier around the field.

"Whew," Amber sighed. "Great job, guys!" Her friends cheered in response, and we all turned back to Noah's Duel.

"My turn," Gustafv growled. "I play the Spell Card Gateway to Dark World! This lets me revive my Zure, Knight of Dark World! Tragoedia, attack his Airknight Parshath!" The monster lunged forward, but Noah jumped up.

"Not so fast!" he yelled. "I play the Trap Card Magic Cylinder! This card stoops your attack, and slams you with damage equal to your monster's ATK!" The first of the two cups took in the attack blast, while the other blasted it at Gustafv.

"I play the Counter Trap Dark Bribe," he cried, "which stops your Trap!"

"Not quite!" Noah reacted. "I play Seven Tools of the Bandit, which counters _your_ Trap!"

"Both cards disappearing, the attack continued, and Gustafv was blasted into the force field.

LP 3900 - 1500

"Argh, fine," he growled, "but I activate Tragoedia's ability! By discarding my Level-4 Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World, I can take control of your monster! Furthermore, Beiige's ability summons him from the Graveyard!" The monster on Noah's field was taken to Gustafv's side, and the monster he sent away came up as well. "Now I have four monsters ready to tear your Life Points to shreds on my next turn!"

Noah smirked. "There is no 'next turn' for you. This Duel is over."

"Huh?"

"It's my turn!" Noah shouted. "I play the Spell Card Tribute Capture!"

"What's that?" Gustafv asked, clearly confused.

"Since I have no monsters," the boy grinned, "I can sacrifice one of your monsters for a Tribute Summon, and I choose Tragoedia!"

"What?!" he gasped as his monster disappeared into a huge boat which came out of nowhere. "What is that?"

"The magic of the Ritual Spell Card Shinato's Ark!" Noah replied. "This allows me to summon Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!" A six-winged seraphim appeared form the ark, which vanished soon after the creature appeared. "Now I activate Raigeki! This card destroys all of your monsters!" A huge storm of lightning bolted from the sky, wiping out the enemy line.

"Shinato," Noah called, "attack him now and end this Duel!"

A ray of lightning shot from the angel's hand, and the clone vanished in a flash of light. Suddenly, everything disappeared, and we were back in the Skid. But when we breathed our sigh of relief, a familiar voice rang out.

"You may have won today," Kahril's voice said, "but we'll be back, and you _will_ die." Then, the voice faded as if it was never there.

"We need to let the gang know we're here," I said.

"Indeed," Anthea replied, "but how? Jeremy shut the computer down, remember?"

"I have an idea…" I said, and then gathered everyone around to hear of it.

* * *

**Here's when we catch up with Return to the Past, so wait until next time to see what's next!**

**P.S. I made the Duel and Battle short to save time and provide an easy challenge. I will make longer Duels and Battles for later chapters, so there.**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	6. Jeremy Finds Use for a Team Healer

**A/N: This is a little longer than the others, and it gets longer from here on, so you'll have more to look forward too!**

**Sadly, I don't own Code Lyoko, or else this event would be even better.**

* * *

Chapter 6 – Jeremy Finds Use for a Team Healer

"If this thing can take us to different times," I started, "how about we tell it to go back to our current time?"

"Huh?" Noah scratched his head. "I thought that you couldn't go back to your time until you finished this mission."

"We can't go to the real world in any time yet," Anthea said, "because the system lost the materialization code somewhere in the space-time continuum. However, we can freely jump back from time to time without any sort of backlash to us or the Skid."

"And so, I say," I continued, "we go back to our time, and send a message to Jeremy, telling him to turn on the supercomputer so that we can talk to him while we're all on Lyoko."

"That sounds like a good idea," Amber said, "but should he know about us?"

"I think he's okay to let Jeremy in on this," I replied. "My daughter's been trapped in there for ten years, making her older than him, and yet he's not changed about her in the least. In fact, I actually hope he's dating her right now."

"Why's that?" Noah asked.

"Well," I smiled, "I always wondered if Jeremy, if he was older at the time, would have made a good boyfriend for Aelita, and soon I may know for sure."

"You've known him for that long?"

"Aelita and I were there the day he was born," I said back, "and Aelita said he was the most adorable baby boy she had ever seen. Granted, she was ten at the time, but ever since then, I had this thought that something like this would have happened."

"That sounds so romantic!" Amber cheered. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Hold on, Amber," Anthea said. "First we have to disable the autopilot, and then we won't have to worry about being shot somewhere else if we try to go to a certain place and time."

"How do you do that?" the young Trainer asked.

"Like so," my wife replied, pushing a simple yellow button on the control panel. Within seconds, the inside of the ship began to glow a bright shade of blue, and then the color changed instantly to white. A few seconds later, beeping noises from the controls yielded a ding to signify the autopilot's deactivation.

"And with that," she said, "we set our time in the display." She punched in a few keys, and the display showed:

Current Location: August 29, 2002, 2:29 PM, Alcatraz Island, near Sea of Japan  
Destination: October 9, 2007, 2:58 AM, Sceaux, France

"Now all we have to do is press the big red button," she finished, smiling, "and we're ready to roll through time!"

"It sounds easy enough!" Noah cheered.

"May I?" I asked, pointing to the button in question.

"I'd be insulted if you didn't!" Anthea smiled back as I sat in my chair and pressed the button.

Within seconds, the lights and speed whisked us away, and before any of us knew it, we had stopped in a familiar space to me and Anthea: the door to Lyoko. However, the virtual globe that contained my life's work had grown dark and the key was locked. This was obviously because the supercomputer housing Lyoko had been shut down after Jeremy, Aelita, and their friends defeated XANA once and for all.

As I thought of this, I picked up a picture frame from the dashboard and looked at it. It was a digital replica of a photo of Aelita and her friends standing together with huge grins. I could see that she was holding onto Jeremy lovingly, and I sighed absentmindedly. Amber picked up on this, and looked at the photo.

"Is that Aelita, Mr. Schaeffer?" she asked.

I jumped a little, and then looked at her. "Oh, yes, she is," I said, "and those are her friends."

"The blond kid with the glasses is Jeremy, right?" she added.

"He is," I sighed.

"They look cute together," she smiled.

"Yeah," I said. "I guess they do."

"Mr. Schaeffer," Noah said, pointing at the sphere in front of us. "Is this Lyoko?"

"Yes, it is," I replied as I turned to him.

"Why is it so dark?" he asked.

"The supercomputer's been deactivated," I explained, "so we can't get in."

"Well, couldn't you just reactivate it?" Amber asked. "I mean you did it once before, right?"

"I'm afraid that won't work," I said. "I could only shut down Lyoko, not reactivate it. Plus, when XANA destroyed the original Lyoko and I sent the blueprints for the new Lyoko, I left out the mobile shut-down so that XANA couldn't shut it down if the gang were on Lyoko."

"Well, how about you send Jeremy a message about us being here?" Noah asked. "That way, he'll turn the supercomputer back on, and we'll be able to tell him about us!"

"Sounds like a plan," I said, "but how do we send the message?"

"What do you mean?" Amber asked.

"Well, this may be an advanced virtual submarine," I said, "which is apparently capable of transversing space and time through the Internet, but I don't think the guys from R&D put in an e-mail gadget in here."

"Why not?" Noah asked.

"Maybe they didn't think of it," I answered. "I mean, when you think about it, it doesn't seem very practical."

"So, we just trespass in someone else's computer and send the message?" Amber asked.

"Not exactly," Anthea said, tapping a few keys.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Take a look at the screen and see for yourself," she replied.

I did, and saw an icon of a letter with a status bar rapidly filling up. When it finished doing whatever it did, I was confused at what it was supposed to do.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"That," she responded, "was the successful download of an e-mail application from a local website that specializes in posting downloadable versions of various computer utilities, in case a computer doesn't come with them or loses them."

"That's pretty cool," I said. "Technology has advanced greatly in these short ten years I've been gone from the world."

"But I thought you were in the network after you shut down the supercomputer," Amber said, "why did you say that about modern technology?"

"Well," I rubbed the back of my neck, "I did, but I guess I just had an old man moment there."

At this everyone, including myself, burst into a small fit of laughter.

"All right," I said, cracking my knuckles, "what will happen once the message is sent? Will Jeremy know it's from us?"

"I don't think so," Anthea replied, "since we aren't writing from a computer, and we have no e-mail address on this thing."

"Oh, well how do we convince him we're not the bad guys?" I asked.

"He'll know once we put this little mark," she responded, tapping a few keys, which showed lines connected to a capital O, in a mark which looked like this.

(O)

/ | \

"Is that the eye of Lyoko?" I asked.

"Exactly," she replied, smiling at me.

"So, you'll think he'll believe it's us based on him seeing this icon on the message?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing, the absurdity of it was astonishing, but I guess we only had a few options.

"All right," I relented. "Let me type this message."

She moved aside, and I typed on my keyboard, "_Come to the factory at once. Don't bring the others. We need to talk alone._" At the end, I place the eye of Lyoko and sent it to Jeremy's e-mail address. After that, I opened up a screen that, in one shot, showed the outside of the factory, and in another, showed the inside of the factory.

"All right," I said, "now comes the hardest part."

"What part's that?" Amber asked.

"The waiting."

It truly was the hardest part. My wife was very placid, but I was very nervous. It was agonizing to me, thinking that at any moment, the autopilot could reactivate and this machine could shoot us to God knows where, or maybe I should say, God knows when. However, my patience was soon rewarded when I saw someone move the manhole cover on the road in front of the factory, and Jeremy climbed out of the hole. I checked my watch, and it was only 3:04 AM, so I only waited about three or four minutes.

"All right," I said, "now to send the next message."

With that, I typed, "Jeremy, turn on the supercomputer and wait for my message. Don't worry about using the headset." As I sent the message to Jeremy's cell phone in the form of a text message, Amber observed it and furrowed her brow.

"Why would he not need to worry about the headset?" she asked.

"XANA used a virus to sap Jeremy's strength every time he used it," I replied, "even if XANA wasn't connected to the supercomputer. However, with him gone, that virus was destroyed along with him."

"That's good," Amber said.

"Indeed." I noticed Jeremy enter the supercomputer room, and pull the switch. Instantly, the globe in front of us glowed brightly and started pulsing as Lyoko was reactivated. With that, I typed, "_Get in the scanner and I will tell you everything._" I then sent it to the supercomputer's mainframe and leaned back in the chair.

"Ready to take the plunge, kids?" I asked to my passengers.

"We're ready, doc!" Noah replied.

I then tapped a few keys on the main console, and a beam of light shot out to the lock to the entrance to Lyoko, effectively unlocking it. I then gripped the throttle tightly and shot through the tunnel, and surfaced in the Desert Sector.

"So this is Lyoko?" Noah asked.

"There's a lot more to it than this," I responded, "but yeah, that's the gist of it."

"How will Jeremy get in here?" Amber asked.

"He just has to virtualize himself into Lyoko," I said, "but I have made it so that he will be inside a Guardian."

"Why that?" she asked.

"It's so he'll be less… edgy about being on Lyoko again," I replied. "I'll go into it first, and I'll bring you in later."

After that, I pressed a few more keys, and a large red dome appeared on the flat surface of the Desert Sector, and I felt myself disappear into it. When everything became solid again after turning blurry, I saw we were in a digital replica of the living room of my home. I sighed wistfully at the memories here, but I shrugged them off. However, I couldn't resist striking up a tune on the piano, even if it wasn't really the same one. I started playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but then I switched mid-song to Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne No. 9 Op. 2.

"The first thing I'm gonna do when I get home is fix the piano," I declared. "Music is a gift that must be properly cherished."

As I said this, I felt a surge of energy, and Jeremy hazily appeared in the room. As he gawked at his surroundings, he saw me, and I turned to face him.

"It's good to see you again, Jeremy Belpois," I said heartily, and Jeremy nearly fell back in shock. Talk about déjà vu.

"Franz… Franz Hopper?" Jeremy gasped. "But…but this can't be possible! You were killed by XANA! How can you be standing right here?!"

"He'd like me to think that I'm dead," I responded, "but I'm far from it. However, I am still trapped in the Network."

"Wait a minute," Jeremy said, "if what you say is true, then how were you there when you helped me upload my program that destroyed XANA's Replikas?"

"I was not really there," I replied. "What your friends saw was a digital clone of me."

Jeremy paused for a while, but he added aloud, and very sternly,

"You know something? When that clone was destroyed, I couldn't stop your daughter from crying over the thought that her father was gone forever."

I looked down. "Well, I am sorry about that part, but saying that I would really come was the only thing I could think of that would draw out XANA."

"Well, since he's gone, it worked," Jeremy added, "but why did you call me here instead of writing all this in a message?"

"For three reasons," I replied, "First, I wanted you to see that I was all right with your own eyes before telling the others, especially Aelita. Second, there is something important you must know about XANA and your involvement in all of this."

"Like what?"

"Have you ever wondered where he got his powers from?" I looked at Jeremy in a serious manner.

"Well, you made him, so you should know." Jeremy asked. "Since you kept him from breaking into other worldwide systems, he took his energy from the supercomputer. When we fought him, he even got a supercharge whenever we made those jump backs in time with the Return to the Past program."

"You are half correct," I replied, "He did draw part of his powers from the supercomputer when he was still chained to it, but he did not get any power from the jump backs in time, at least from the jump backs themselves."

Jeremy was confused. "What do you mean, 'not from the jump backs themselves'? You mean that he had another source that we didn't know about?"

I nodded.

"What was it?"

I removed my glasses and looked at him intently. "I'm looking at it."

Jeremy stepped back, shocked. "Me? What do you mean?"

"Didn't you ever wonder how you kept getting weaker and weaker whenever you used the computer's headset?" I asked. "You always thought that, because he was a computerized entity, that he was taking his energy from an electronic source. But did you ever think that he took his strength from a more, shall we say, _organic_ source?"

Jeremy paused for a second.

"I know what you're thinking," I said calmly, "but the fact is that XANA _did_ infect someone with a virus to drain their energy, but it wasn't Aelita or any of your friends, Jeremy. It was _you_."

"But how?" Jeremy asked, almost immediately after Franz had finished talking.

"Simple," I replied, "XANA infected the headset with a virus that would become like a parasite to whoever first activated the supercomputer after I shut it down ten years ago, which would be you. This virus would take the energy of this person and make it XANA's whenever they used the headset."

"That would explain why I always felt lightheaded after I used the headset," Jeremy stated. "But what's the third reason you called me here?"

I was silent for a moment, and then I looked out the window. "You fought a great battle against arguably the most evil digital threat the world has ever faced, but a bigger test awaits. Old and familiar enemies will resurface and you will need all the strength you can get for the coming battle."

"Wait, what 'battle'?" Jeremy asked. "What are you talking about?"

"He's still alive, Jeremy."

Jeremy gasped and his eyes grew much wider.

"And that's not all," I relented. "His successor has escaped as well.

"WHAT?!" Jeremy shouted. "How? I thought that he was down for good! I made sure of it myself when I carted Danzkhi away by myself!"

"Unfortunately, I tell no lie when I say this," I said with my head hanging low, "but there is someone who can take Danzkhi and Fromm down for good this time, and that's you."

"I was a completely different person back then," Jeremy said, looking down. "I don't have nearly the amount of strength I had in those days, and I don't think I'll ever get it back…" Just then a light in his head went off. "That's why you called me here, isn't it? You've got the energy that XANA stole from me, don't you?"

I said nothing, but reached into my lab coat and pulled out a glowing blue orb, and showed it to Jeremy.

"How is this going to-" Jeremy started, but then, without a warning of any sort, the orb flew out of my hand and shoved itself into Jeremy's chest, causing him to stumble back and land on the couch.

"What was that for?" Jeremy shouted, as he stood up again. "I thought this was going to help me, not hurt me!"

"That was just a side effect from having a part of you that was taken out of you put back in you again. You won't feel any change until a few minutes later." I replied, then darkened. "Besides, that's not the only thing you'll feel soon."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"XANA's link with you was not entirely dissolved," I said. "He left you and some other people a little 'gift' when he was destroyed."

"What kind of 'gift'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"XANA once had your power," I said, "now you have his."

"I do?" he jolted. "Who else has his powers?"

Just then, my wife's voice spoke through my com link. "Waldo!" she shouted. "The autopilot's been reactivated and a new time's been set! And you won't believe where and when!"

I shot straight up. "Sorry, Jeremy, but I have to go. The supercomputer will be shut back down when you leave."

"Wait," Jeremy said. "Where are you going? When and how are you coming back?"

"Just like you now have a mission, so do I." I said. Within seconds, Noah and Amber joined me in the room.

"So he's the Jeremy you always talk about, Mr. Hopper?" Amber asked.

"Yes, that's him." I replied.

"I don't get it," Jeremy said. "What is this mission and who are these kids?"

"My name is Amber," she answered.

"And I'm Noah." he added.

"Nice to meet you, I'm sure," Jeremy stated, "but this doesn't answer the question. What is this so-called mission?"

"I've been assigned to rescue certain people throughout time who have met their end too soon." I answered.

"Assigned?" Jeremy asked. "By whom?"

"I'm sorry, Jeremy," I said, "but I can't explain everything now. But know this: I'll soon be able to leave this cyber world and return to the real world as soon as I find the final 'person who time destroyed'. Also, there are three of you 'Scipios' here now, and two more will come soon!"

"Huh?" Jeremy asked. Suddenly the world around him began to flicker and get brighter. "What's happening?" he shouted.

"We're being pulled into a virtual wormhole!" I said, trying to say as much as I could. "This is where we part for now, Jeremy. But don't worry! I'll be back before you know it! And tell Aelita and the others I'm okay! Goodbye for now!"

Jeremy and everything around us faded as we were pulled out of Lyoko and into the Skid, which flew out of Lyoko the second the kids and I were in it. I saw the dome darken behind us as it faded away into the digital horizon. I felt the ship speed up as it zoomed through the Network.

"Where and when is it taking us now?" I asked.

"Just look at the display!" she replied. When I did I jumped in shock.

Current Location: October 9, 2007, 2:58 AM, Sceaux, France  
Destination: June 7, 1951, 6:06 PM, Space Colony ARK.

"The ARK?" I gasped, for I knew of that space station quite well. "Why there?"

"Check the time, honey," she replied. When I realized it, I was even more in shock.

"That's fifty-six years ago!" I shouted.

"Exactly," she said. "That was when that accident forced the ARK to shut down. We're going to find out for ourselves what happened, and I have a hunch that this trip may be the key to getting home for all of us!"

"Then let's not waste any time!" I declared.

"Ha, that's a good one, dear," she smiled.

"I thought it was myself," I replied as I pressed the red button and the Skid shot forward into the past.

* * *

**A/N: Oh, here it is! A spoiler like no other of what is to come! Keep enjoying this until its soon-to-come end!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	7. We Take 1 Step Forward and 50 Steps Back

**A/N: Here's for all you reading good fanfics on Labor Day!**

**P.S., I don't own Code sLyoko, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Sonic the Hedgehog (story, characters, or anything.)**

* * *

Chapter 7 – We Take One Step Forward and 50 Steps Back

This time jump was much different from the others. For one thing, it was taking longer since we had further to go to. For another, the lights that swirled around our ship seemed to become gradually darker, as if we were entering a huge digital cave or something. All this takes time to say, but there was barely time for anyone to even think about this, let alone time for anyone to do something in response to this.

Suddenly, the Skid lurched and groaned, and with a loud "boom", everything went dark. The lights inside the ship went on the instant the darkness came, but for now they were quite dim. We all looked around and we could still see each other, but barely.

"Is everyone all right?" I asked the crew.

"I feel fine," Amber piped up.

"Shaken," Noah added, "but not stirred."

"We're all okay here, honey," Anthea replied.

"Thank goodness," I sighed, and then looked around at the gradually brightening lights.

"Mr. and Mrs. Schaeffer!" Amber said, pointing to the window. "Look outside!"

When Anthea and I moved to see what Amber saw, we were awestruck. Outside the window we could see the vast expanse of outer space. Starts speckled all around us, and the moon loomed in front of us, big and bright like I had never seen before.

"We're in outer space?" I asked, remembering our place. "How did we get outside the internet? What's going on, what's happening here, and who are we supposed to find?"

"In order," Anthea said, "we're just outside Space Colony ARK, we were able to escape the internet because I found the materialization code in Lyoko, and we're back on the day when the 'accident' happened at the colony. You do know of it, yes?"

My face darkened. "Yes, I know what the event was. Quite well, actually."

"What's she talking about, Mr. Schaeffer?" Amber asked.

"You've probably never heard of it," I said, "but this is a fifty-year-old space station named Space Colony ARK."

"I have never heard of it," Amber said, scratching her scalp.

"I have," Noah piped up.

I whipped around to face him. "You've heard of Space Colony ARK? It was a top-secret military project from fifty years ago that has been under tight wraps ever since! How would a kid like you know about something like that?"

"I went there once," he replied. "It was when I was trapped in my father's virtual world. I went into the ARK's network, but I couldn't find out more than the fact that it was shut down on June 7, 1951 due to an unknown event."

"It wasn't unknown," I said. "A man named Professor Gerald Robotnik was conducting experiments up there about human life and ways to cure incurable illnesses. Many say that the reason for his motivation was that his granddaughter, Maria, was diagnosed with a terminal disease called NIDS, which stands for 'Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome.' He was actually commissioned by the president to lead this experiment. However, the government shut down the operation and arrested all those without the president's knowledge. They even succeeded in executing Professor Gerald before anyone could object." My face fell to the ground. "They also killed Maria. She was only twelve."

"Oh no," Amber placed her hand over her mouth in shock.

"That's terrible!" Noah cried. "She was no older than we are! How could they… why _would_ do that?"

"They claimed that Professor Gerald was conspiring with terrorists to take over the world," I replied. "They also thought he was trying to achieve immortality and became a mad scientist as a result. All of which was a cover-up by Terah Towers, founder and first commander the Guardian Unit of Nations, G.U.N. for short."

"G.U.N.?" Noah said. "I've heard my father mention them before. He said he gave them all kinds of special weapons and tanks to strengthen their armies."

"That sounds like Gozaburo Kaiba," I said "G.U.N. never was an army to take feelings or anything that interfered with the mission into account, not even a direct order from the President of the United States of America."

"They disobeyed the president?" Amber said. "Isn't that treason or something?"

"Not if you're part of the CIA reporting about a mad experiment," I responded. "A certain group of CIA agents had paranoid fears as to what was happening on the ARK, so they created a false report that said Professor Gerald was conducting experiments in order for him to achieve eternal life. That's when it turned out that G.U.N. placed some of their men in the CIA so that they could get on the ARK and shut it down along with Gerald's experiment."

"Who were these agents?" Amber asked.

"The G.U.N. ranks referred to them as The Men in Black. That's where the movie idea came from, except those agents were really good guys and there were no aliens involved." I said. _No alien cockroaches, at least._ I added to myself. "After they arrested and executed all the scientists involved in the project, G.U.N. made the men involved swear to utmost secrecy to never reveal their suppression of Project Shadow to anyone, even the President, on pain of death."

"Project Shadow?" Amber asked.

"It's the name given to Professor Gerald's project," Anthea said. "They gave it the name 'Shadow' since the scientists thought his goals would be impossible to achieve."

"How do you know about Project Shadow?" Noah asked.

I looked at Anthea, and she looked at me and nodded. "You can tell them, honey. It's not like they'll get you. The agents are all in jail now for what they did."

I was surprised. "They are?"

"The president didn't like that G.U.N. kept this under wraps," she said. "Six years ago they arrested the CIA spies for hiding the project records and have been sentenced to life in prison on the charge of high treason."

"They were still alive after all this time?" I asked.

"No," she replied, "but the group still had men working in it, and that was enough. The spies almost kidnapped a real CIA agent named Charles Stewart and a TV reporter named Scarlett Garcia."

"Well," I smirked, "that is impressive. All right, kids, I'll tell you the whole story."

Amber and Noah nodded and sat down cross-legged on the floor to hear my short recurrence of the tale of Project Shadow.

"Professor Gerald designed Space Colony ARK with the help of the European National Research and Development Agency, which my father was a part of." I started. "I was only five at the time, but I always dreamed of going into space. My father was good friends with Professor Gerald, and I had the privilege to meet Maria when we took that great voyage when the project was completed. I lived in that place for a whole year and it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life."

"You lived on the ARK?" Noah said.

"Please, Noah," Amber said calmly, "don't interrupt someone when he's talking.

"Oh," Noah grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's all right," I assured him. "Like I said, I lived on Space Colony ARK until I was seven. I had heard from Maria that her grandfather was pulling out all the stops to cure her, even staying up so late that he never got any sleep. One day, I heard Professor Gerald burst out of his room, barking about how he had made a remarkable discovery, and the next day I saw Maria with an interesting creature. It looked like a hedgehog, but it was anthropomorphic, or human-like, as well. It was almost purely black, apart from the few red striped that ran down its arms, legs, and its head. She called it 'Shadow,' and I wondered if he was the project that the professor spoke so highly of. I also noticed the soldiers, who had been on the ship since day one, were on edge since the announcement of Gerald's epiphany, as if something really bad was going to happen."

"Did it?" Noah asked.

"I'm not sure," I said. "All that I remember was that the soldiers came for my father the next day, Maria was killed, and the ARK was shut down after everyone was taken down to Earth. All the scientists involved with Professor Robotnik, even the Professor himself, were put behind bars and it took everything the Embassy had to free my father. Thank goodness they did, because after a month or so, everyone involved in the ARK, even Gerald, was executed on charge of high treason against their country."

"Wait," Noah said. "When was that?"

"I remember that day like the back of my hand," I said. "June 7, 1951, a day that I don't think I'll ever forget."

"And what's the time in this set to?" Noah asked.

"June 7, 1951."

"Then today's the day it happened!" Amber concluded.

"We must have been sent here to save Maria!" Noah said. "We have to get inside the ARK!"

"Haven't you seen any of the movies?" I said. "We can't just waltz in there all, 'Hey, we're from the future here to save this girl, so pay no mind to us!' That will disrupt the space-time continuum, won't it?"

"Not necessarily." Anthea said.

"What do you mean?" I turned to her.

She held up a copy of _The Station Square Times_, dated 1951, and I saw the cover picture contained a blurry image of the ARK, as well as…

"That's the Skidbladnir!" I gasped.

"We're meant to be in this time," she declared. "We don't have to worry too much about what we're doing in this time. As long as we don't reveal that we're from the future to anyone but Maria, and only when we rescue her, we'll be okay."

"I believe you," I said, "but how will we get inside the ARK? I mean, it's not like we can just knock on the front door, you know."

"Who said we would knock?" she grinned. "We're going to teleport ourselves inside."

"How will we get back, then?" I asked.

"You use your gauntlet, silly," she said, pointing to my wrist computer. "Now, Wally, beam us down."

I laughed. "Aye aye, captain,"

With that, I pressed a few buttons on the console, and we fazed into an empty room aboard the Space Colony ARK. I then looked outside, and I saw the Skid fade from visible sight outside. Since I didn't see Anthea, I realized she stayed behind with the ship. I looked around at the inside of the colony, and saw we were in my old room I had on the ARK.

"This place is just like I remember," I said,

"Were you born here, Mr. Schaeffer?" Amber asked.

"No," I replied, "but I was brought up here after my father and Professor Gerald finished building it. Maria was born here, however. She said how she always wanted to visit Earth, just to see what her grandfather told her about it." I looked at the mirror, and I saw a picture of my seven-year-old counterpart with Maria.

"I'll take you there, Maria," I whispered to the picture, hoping the real Maria could hear me.

"Well, we better find Maria and get out of here before too much happens," Anthea declared from my com link.

I opened the door, and the kids and I stepped out into a long hallway that led into a room filled with test tubes and cages with lizards and other animals inside them. Manning these experiments were several scientists with clipboards and pencils, taking down all sorts of data on whatever they were doing. We walked right by them, but they paid no mind to us.

"Can't they see us?" Amber asked.

"They can," I said, "but they just don't want to. That's a scientist for you; so absorbed with their work that the outside world does not exist to them."

We continued down the hallway, and I heard voices coming from a room at the end of the hall.

"I cannot stress this enough, Ferdinand," an old wheezy voice rang out.

"Who's that?" Amber whispered.

"That sounds like Professor Gerald," I said, my eyes wide.

Curious, I sneaked close to the door, motioned for the others to stay back, and pressed a button on my gauntlet which cloaked me in an invisibility shield as I peeked in through the window. Sure enough, I saw that the man who spoke was tall and had a bald head, thick glasses, and a large bushy moustache.

_Professor Gerald Robotnik,_ I thought to myself. I looked at whom he was speaking to and nearly jumped out of my skin in shock. The man next to the professor was a middle aged man in a lab coat with black hair, clear glasses, and a white beard and moustache.

_Father!_ I nearly gasped.

"You have to make sure these files are not found by the government," Gerald said to my father. "The only people who know the truth beside you and me are President Truman and your President Keller. Black Doom cannot know what this message entails or my true motives for working with him. I can't undo my discovery of the Black Comet's true purpose, but I can stop what Black Doom will bring to our planet. Shadow and Maria are to be the last hope for us all, and he must know the truth someday and how he will save us all. When the time comes, you must give Shadow these disks containing the video."

Gerald handed the past version of my father a reel-to-reel tape, labeled "To Shadow" on it.

"I will protect it with my honor and my life," he said. I stepped away from the window, stunned.

"When one makes a contract with the devil," Gerald said, "eventually he will come for your soul. If the soldiers come, keep Maria safe and don't worry about me. Please promise me this."

"I will," I heard my father say. With that, I saw him leave the room and I thought about this to myself.

"Black Doom?" I said to myself. "Who is that, and what is this he's saying about this Black Comet?"

"Waldo!" Anthea called on my com link. "I found something outside in space! Take a look at your gauntlet!"

I opened the video screen on my wrist computer, and saw a bright red object orbiting the Earth, and it was very close to the ARK.

"What is…?" I started, but then realized something. "That must be the Black Comet!"

"What's that?" Anthea said.

"I remember when I was ten my dad once told me about a shooting star called the Black Comet and how orbits Earth every fifty years," I said. "No one knows where it came from but it's been spotted in the same place in the sky for countless years. Now I think something related to the Black Comet was responsible for what happened here fifty years ago – er – today!"

"That's great and all," she said, "but we have a bigger problem!"

"What's that?" I said, not liking her worried tone.

"Although I received the materialization code from Lyoko," she said, "the shock of time warping straight from the Network took an enormous strain on the time travel function!"

"What does that mean?" I asked, really not liking where this was going.

"It means," she said after a while, "the Skid can't travel through time anymore."

My eyes bulged.

"We're trapped in 1951."

* * *

**Dun, dun, DUUUUUN! Terrible, ain't I? I'm working on CHapter 8 right now, so you don't need to worry TOO much.**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	8. The Day is Saved Thanks to A Dying Girl

**A/N: I forgot to metion this in my previous chapter, but I combined the games, anime, and the comics (that's where the whole NIDS thing came from) into this story. I will incorporate such tactics in my next Sonic story (yes, there will be one) when I finish this and Return To the Past (oh yeah!).**

**P.S. This chapter title was so long, I had to shorten it greatly to fit it in the display.**

**P.S.S. I don't own Code Lyoko, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Sonic the Hedgehog. (God, that's probably the longest disclaimer I've had yet.)**

* * *

Chapter 8 – The Day is Saved Thanks to a Girl with a Terminal Disease

Needless to say, this was not good. Not only were we out of our time and without the person we needed to save, but now we were out of our time, without the person we needed to save, _and_ we had no way to get back to our time. I noticed the kids turned to me with a worried expression.

"We can't get back to our time?" Amber gasped.

"We can't be stuck here forever!" Noah protested. "We've got to do something!"

I thought for a minute. Just then, a thought came to me. Call it coincidence, call it fate, but I felt very strongly about this new thought, wherever it came from.

"Maybe if we find Maria, she may find a way to get us back to our time." I said.

"How will she know how to do that?" Noah asked.

"I'm not sure," I admitted, "but I have this feeling that she will know."

Just then, a voice form the next room called out,

"Ha, ha! Catch me if you can!" This voice sounded like a little boy's voice.

"Oh, Abraham Towers, you're going to get it this time!" another voice said, this one distinctly female.

After a minute, I saw a little boy, no more than eight, run down the hall, sticking his tongue out at an angry girl chasing him, who looked to be around sixteen years old. But when I took a good look at her, I gasped and pulled everyone out of the way and into a spare room.

"Who was that, Mr. Schaeffer?" Noah asked.

"That was…" I said, still shocked, "Maria Robotnik."

"Well then, why did you avoid her if we're supposed to save her?" Amber asked.

"Hey, give him a break, Amber," Noah said, "it would be hard for him to meet someone who he knew was dead for 50 years and not react like that."

"Thanks, Noah," I said.

After Maria and the boy, Abraham, passed by us, I heard another voice coming from the room Robotnik was in.

"Has everything gone according to our arrangements, professor?"

I was confounded by the unfamiliarity of this voice. It was cold, almost chilling. I used the x-ray specs in my glasses to see through the wall and into the room. What I saw in Gerald's room, along, with him, was something I could not have even imagined. It was a creature with two long red-tipped black horns sticking out horizontally from its head and a grayish cloak covering its body, or possible lack thereof. It had thick black arms and all sorts of jewels and charms draped over its cloak. What further confounded me was that it had three eyes, two where I knew they should be, and one above them both.

"Yes, Black Doom," Gerald said, rather annoyed. "I have prepared for everything. Even if the soldiers come, Shadow will be sent to Earth and deliver the downfall of humanity. It will serve those selfish humans right."

I gasped in fright. There was no way that these words were Gerald's. The alien, Black Doom, nodded and chuckled.

"Well done, Gerald," he said. "I await the future that time will yield for my son. My work here is done, and the Black Comet will soon pass out of orbit with this planet. Until next time, Gerald Robotnik, I bid thee farewell."

"Farewell, Black Doom," Gerald responded, bowing. "Your assistance in my research has been more than invaluable, and for that, I thank you."

Black Doom nodded, and faded from the room, much to my astonishment. As he did, Gerald's eyes narrowed.

"I see what Shadow's future will hold for you, Black Doom," he said angrily, "and in it, you will be destroyed for wanting death and darkness to befall the human race. Shadow will save the world from you and Maria and I will be there to see you fall. Your research has not only given me the ultimate weapon to destroy you, the Eclipse Cannon, but the cure for my granddaughter that I so desperately needed. I eagerly wait for the day I see you die. Until then, you monster."

As he finished saying this, he then resumed his work. I was very confused by his statement. I thought he was working with this alien to destroy mankind, not save it with this 'Shadow' creature. Suddenly, it all made sense. Gerald was working with this Black Doom character and doing what he wanted only to heal Maria and create Shadow, whatever that was. Then when Black Doom wanted to use Shadow for his own purposes, Gerald would find a way to bring him down.

"He really hasn't changed at all," I said aloud. "His plans are brilliant as always."

"Huh?" Noah asked.

"Oh, I was thinking aloud," I said. "I saw that Gerald is collaborating with this alien named Black Doom to create something called 'Shadow', but only to find the cure for Maria's disease, which he just found."

"That's gonna take some explaining," Amber said, "but for now we need to find Maria and get out of here fast before…" But she never finished her sentence.

Suddenly a loud banging noise was heard, along with the sounds of boots running, and I turned to see Maria and the black hedgehog run from a mass of soldiers running at them with guns ablaze.

"Freeze!" they shouted. "You can't run! Stop or we'll shoot! We're not afraid to shoot the girl too!"

"Oh, no!" Noah stifled a shout. "We're too late! The G.U.N. soldiers are here!"

"There's no such thing as too late," I said firmly. "I have a plan."

With that, I opened the door, and waved for the two escapees to enter the room.

"Whew, that was close," Maria said. "Thank you." Then, looking at me and the others, she just had to ask, "Who are you people? I've never seen you on the ARK before."

"That's because we're not from the ARK," Amber said. "We're from… somewhere else."

"We can tell her, Amber," I said. "After all, we came here for her, remember?"

"You came for Maria?" the hedgehog asked. "Who are you? Answer the question!"

"Whoa, there," I said. "We came to save you two, or at least her. You know me, Maria. I'm Waldo Schaeffer."

"What? That's not possible!" she protested. "Waldo's just a kid! You're clearly over fifty!"

"That's because I'm Waldo from fifty years in the future!" I exclaimed.

"The future?" Maria gasped.

"It's a long story, and I'll do my best to explain," I said quickly, "but we need to make sure history happens the way it's supposed to. Where are the professor and my father?"

"They've been taken by the soldiers," Maria started to cry. "I don't know why they're doing this. They were good before, but now they locked up everyone on the ARK like prisoners!"

I bit my lip. "This is going to take some explaining to do," I said.

"What do you mean?" the hedgehog asked.

"Well, they're three things that will happen," I replied. "My father will be freed, but the others will be killed for collaborating with extraterrestrial terrorists," I looked at the hedgehog, "you're going to save the world and you," I looked at Maria, "are supposed to die."

"What?!" the hedgehog grabbed me by the neck and forced me into the wall. "You take that back, human, or you'll pay dearly!"

"Shadow, stop that!" Maria shouted, and the hedgehog released me. "I'm sorry for his actions," she bowed.

"It's all right," I said, "I actually came here to save you."

"Really?" she asked. "How's that supposed to work without history being changed by me not being dead?"

"I…" I started, then realized what Maria was saying was right. How could history not be changed by Maria surviving what transpired, or rather, what was now transpiring on the ARK?

"You need to check the article, honey," my wife called from my com link.

"Huh?" I blurted, before remembering, "Oh, right!" I pulled up the news article about the ARK on my wrist computer, and Maria and Shadow marveled at what this piece of modern technology to me, which was truly futuristic to them, was doing. The news report said that the scientist were arrested and executed on charge of high treason against the U.S. government, but when Maria died, the soldier that shot her, a man named Walter Buckley, said he saw a bright flash of light, and he squeezed his eyes shut to keep from going blind. When he opened his eyes again, the girl's body was gone. The soldier said he would never speak of this again to anyone.

I widened my eyes at this. Our alibi to save Maria was foolproof; it had been cemented in time before we even did it. However, there was one problem.

"Well," I said, "after reviewing a report of what will come, I've learned how we save you."

"Thank goodness," Shadow sighed.

"You planned to use those capsules to send you and Shadow to Earth," I said, "right, Maria?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Then you'll stick to that plan," I said. "Lure the soldiers into the capsule room and wait for us to signal you. Our ship's in space right now."

"If it was that easy, then what was the point of all this?" Shadow asked.

"Well, there is one thing I should mention," I said regretfully.

"What's that?" he asked.

"When you get in the capsule," I said, "Maria will have to get shot."

"What?!" Shadow growled. "That is not an option! I will not put Maria's life at stake for anything!"

"Shadow," I said, "I know you don't like this idea, but it's the only one we have. You have to trust me that I will not let Maria die on you. Once she gets shot, I will heal her when we all return to the ship. But for now, you have to trust me. Do it for the people who will die no matter what we do! Do it for Professor Gerald! Do it for Maria!"

Shadow looked at me for a while, and then looked at Maria.

"I believe in Waldo, Shadow," she said. "I trust he'll save me, but you have to be around to save everyone else. All those people need you, Shadow."

Shadow looked down, and then looked at me again. "There's one more problem."

"What's that?" I asked.

"How will you get back to your time if your time-travelling technology is broken?" he asked.

"Your technology is broken?" Maria asked.

"Oh," I blushed, forgetting that fact in the adrenaline rush that came from formulating a way for Maria to fake her death. "That I don't know."

"I may know," Maria spoke up, and then pulled something out from her shirt pocket.

"What is that?" I asked. The object she held in her hand looked like a green jewel, and it shone not with reflected light, but with a light that came from it.

"Is that a Chaos Emerald?" Shadow asked.

"Chaos Emerald?" I asked.

"It's a jewel that contains mass amounts of supernatural powers," Maria said, "but no, Shadow, this isn't a real Chaos Emerald. It's a copy that Grandfather made after analyzing the real Emerald. It has the same wavelength and properties, but is less powerful than the real thing."

"So we can use this to initiate Chaos Control?" Shadow asked.

"Chaos Control?" I asked.

"When the seven Chaos Emeralds are together," Maria said, "it's said that the one who possesses them can bend both time and space. I think that Grandfather designed this one to allow anyone to do the same with just one Emerald. However, only one can use it and it isn't very powerful."

"That's just fine," I said. "We just need it to transport you, me, the kids, and the ship to 2007."

"2007?" Maria gasped. "That's fifty-six years from now!"

"Yes," I said, "and we have to move now! There isn't much time!"

Maria looked at Shadow. "Shadow, I promise you that I will come back to you one day after I escape with them."

"Really?" Shadow asked.

"I never break a promise, especially to a friend," she said, then gave Shadow a quick hug. "Now we have a job to do."

"I'll meet you outside," I said, and pressed a button on my gauntlet. The kids and I faded from the room, leaving Maria and Shadow alone.

"Let's go," Maria said to Shadow.

"Okay," he replied, and they ran out the door.

"Hey, you!" a man in an army uniform cried out. "Stop right there!"

Within seconds, the two made it into the room, and Shadow jumped into the pod without hesitation.

"Hurry, Maria!" he shouted.

Suddenly, as her hands touched the lever, the door burst open and the man, who was the G.U.N. agent Walter Buckley, pointed his pistol at her.

"Step away from that lever," he commanded. "I mean it."

A voice called from his headset. "Is the girl at the controls?"

"Yes sir," Buckley replied.

"Good," he said. "Kill her."

"What?" he said, not believing what he was hearing. "Why should I want to kill her?"

"I'm ordering you to kill her!" the man on the other line shouted. "She's an enemy of the Guardian Unit of Nations and the nations they protect! Do it or I'll do it myself and arrest you for disobeying orders!"

With defiance in her eyes, she pulled the lever and Buckley fired a 13mm shot into her left lung.

"Maria!" Shadow cried as he was forced to see the bloody event. After she fell to the floor, she crawled up to Shadow and placed her hand on the glass.

"Shadow…" she said weakly, "help the people on Earth. Everyone's fate depends on… you…" as she finished, she collapsed to the floor.

"MARIA!" All Shadow could do was watch as his capsule was sent rocketing to Earth.

"Now, Anthea!" I said.

Within seconds, all the lights on the outside of our ship came on and I could see them men inside covering their eyes.

"Now's my chance!" I said. I teleported inside while everyone was blinded, grabbed Maria, and teleported back to the ship before anyone knew what had happened. I placed Maria on one of the chairs and started to administer he healing she needed. I was able to remove the bullet thanks to my powers, but the damage it caused looked very bad.

"What's her status?" Anthea asked.

"Very bad," I replied. "I don't know how to fix what that bullet did to her."

Just as I said this, the Chaos Emerald copy that Maria held started glowing more brightly than it had before, and I shielded my eyes. Before long, however, the glow faded. Soon after that, I saw Maria's eyes open, and she sat up, looking dazed.

"What just happened?" I asked, looking at my x-ray on my computer.

"The Emerald," she said, holding the object up to her face. "It has the same powers as the real thing, so it must have been able to heal me."

"Whoa!" I said. "That wound's not the only thing it purged! You're cured!"

"Cured?" she asked. "Of what?"

"Your terminal disease!" I said. "You don't have the symptoms of NIDS anymore! You're going to be just fine!"

"That's…" she started, but began to cry. She then wrapped her arms around me tightly.

"Thank you, Waldo," she cried into me. "You're just like your childhood self."

"I'll take that as a compliment, then," I said. "Now, about the Emerald."

"Right," she said. "Where's the power supply?"

"It's electric," Anthea replied, "but you can plug that thing in here."

She pushed a button and opened a door on the console which contained a slot that was just the right size for the Chaos Emerald. I couldn't help but chuckle at this.

"You knew all along, didn't you, dear?" I laughed.

"I'm not the only one, honey," she replied, pulling out her crucifix necklace.

"You have a point there," I said. "Well, what are we waiting for? Maria, you can do the honors."

"Okay!" she said, and plugged the jewel into the slot, which glowed brightly, and caused the ship's inside to whirr and click, and the display to read;

Current Location: June 7, 1951, 6:06 PM, Space Colony ARK  
Destination: October 12, 2007, 12:00 PM, Sceaux, France

"Hold tight, people," I said happily as the Skid started to acelerate.

"We're going home."

* * *

**A/N: The end is almost here, but it's not here yet! There's one chapter left, and I've saved the best and biggest battle for last!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	9. My Wife Takes Us Back To the Future

**A/N: It's the final chapter! De de lee dee de, de de lee dee de! I finally finished a fanfiction! Woohoo!**

**If only I owned Code Lyoko, then it would be more amazing! But I don't, so oh well.**

* * *

Chapter 9 – My Wife Takes Us Back To the Future

After explaining our situation to our newest crew member, she immediately felt welcome among our ranks, as it were. Amber, Noah, and Maria had gotten along so well and only after just meeting each other. It was a heartwarming moment, and I was extremely happy because there would be yet another wonderful moment just around the bend.

I felt a surge of happiness like nothing I'd ever experienced. After more than ten years of being trapped in the Network and a week of travelling through the Network saving people through time travel, I was finally going back home to my daughter and her friends. I could hardly believe this was all happening. I was sure that, at any moment, I would wake up from this cruel dream, but this wasn't showing any signs of being a dream. I was unable to hold it in anymore, and I broke down in a joyful sob as the ship rocketed through the time-stream.

"Dr. Schaeffer?" Noah asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Noah," I said, still sobbing. "I just can't believe I'm getting to go back home. I've been away from my daughter for what seems like an eternity and I just can't contain myself."

"You think you're emotional?" Anthea scoffed. "I haven't seen my baby girl in over thirteen years! I'm practically on the verge of fainting, yet I'm not shedding even a single tear!"

"Hey now!" I protested, but then Anthea placed her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm just joking, darling," she giggled. "This will be wonderful for all of us."

"I hope so, dear," I said, bringing her close as the lights grew brighter. "I hope so."

Within seconds, the lights grew brighter than ever for a fraction of a second, and then faded as the ship splashed into a small lake on the outskirts of my home town of Sceaux. For those of you who don't know, Sceaux (pronounced like 'so') is a small commune in the suburbs of Paris. We have high-class gardens and three very prestigious schools. There is the Lycée Marie Curie, the Lycée Lakanal, and last but not least, our own Kadic Academy. What we splashed into was a small lake in the _Boulogne_**-**_Billancourt__ area of Sceaux. More specifically, it was right under the bridge entrance to the factory's island, which was in the middle of the lake._

_"__Is everyone all right?" I asked the crew._

_"__We're all fine," Anthea said, and after looking at everyone else, I knew she was right._

_"__How is the Emerald?" I asked. I opened__ the control to find the white jewel glowing much less brightly than it had before._

_"__It's fine," Maria said, "but I don't think it could pull something like that again. I think it's all done with time travel, though it can still do quick travel through Chaos Control."_

_"__That's just fine," I said, "because I'm through with time travel as well."_

_"__You may be through with that," a voice rang out, "but I'm not through with you!"_

_"__What?" I gasped, for I knew that voice._

_"__Who's there?" Maria asked._

_"__My apologies, young lady," the familiar voice of Gustafv __Kahril. "I forgot that you were not present when I made myself known to your companions. Allow me to introduce myself."_

_A figure emerged from the factory, surrounded with armed troops pointing large guns at us. I saw that these were all Black Cobra troops under Gustafv's command.__ He stepped forward and bowed in mock courtesy. "My name is Gustafv Kahril, ex-Soviet Union member and Soviet Administrator of the noble Black Cobras, code named 'Shadow Striker'. It's a pleasure to meet you, Maria Robotnik."_

_"__What?" Maria gasped. "How did you know my name?"_

_"__You just told me it was," he answered curtly, "plus I've been tracking you since you made your first jump back in time. By the way, nicely done with the mock Chaos Emerald, Maria."_

_"__You're not welcome in my factory, you Cobra scum," I growled. "Leave at once and I promise you'll live to see tomorrow. Stay to fight and suffer the consequences."_

_"__Nice try, doctor," he smirked, "but we of the Black Cobras do not know the meaning of the word 'surrender.' Men, prepare to fire all weapons!"_

_The soldiers all raised their weapons as Gustafv slinked back behind the line of fire. I gulped._

_"__Everyone, inside the Skid!" I said, and we all clambered inside and shut the door. "Anthea, activate the shields!"_

_"__On it!" she said, pressing several buttons. Within seconds, a force field surrounded the ship as it took off into the sky. At once, Gustafv pointed at the ship and shouted,_

_"__FIRE!"_

_The shield easily deflected the __battery of bullets that barraged our ship (alliteration intended) and I called out to the kids,_

_"__Get ready to man the Navskids! Noah, make sure Maria knows how to defend herself in those things!"_

_"__Right!" Noah called, and the kids all hurried to the doors to the Navskids, each entering a different one. "Just stay calm and pay attention to Dr. Schaeffer's instructions. We'll get through this, I promise."_

_"__Thanks, Noah," Maria sighed, and proceeded to detach her Navskid from the main ship. Soon, all the Navskids were shooting through the air, and swarming the army on the ground._

_"__Don't take them out," I said over the link. "We need their intel if we're to find the kids."_

_"__Huh?" Maria asked._

_"__He means he's got to extract their powers so that he can track down their stronghold and wipe them out for good," Noah said. "Remember__, these soldiers have that XANA guy's powers inside them, and we can't let them wreak havoc with them."_

_"__Okay," she said, and fired a stun bomb at the left flank of the army. Within seconds, the vast majority of the army was knocked unconscious._

_"__Nice going, Maria!" Amber called._

_"__Thanks," Maria said._

_Soon after that, all the soldiers had been incapacitated,__ and Gustafv was left alone. The Navskids returned to the main ship, and I landed the Skid at the entrance to the factory. Soon after, we all exited the ship and faced the Black Cobra commander._

_"__This is your last chance," I said. "Surrender or fall."_

_"__I'd sooner fall than surrender!" he wailed, and then charged at us, lightning running from one end of him to the other. Amber reacted quickly, whipping out a Poké Ball._

_"__Go, Charmeleon!" she cried. "Use Flamethrower!"_

The Flame Pokémon appeared and a stream of flame erupted from his mouth and struck Kahril dead-on. He shouted out in pain, but leapt out from the quickly raging inferno and resumed his attack.

"Take this!" he shouted. "Thunderbolt!"

A streak of purple lightning shot out from his hand and struck the lizard, knocking him back several meters.

"No!" Amber cried. "Charmeleon!"

"That does it!" Noah shouted, brandishing his Duel Disk. "I play the Ritual Spell Cards White Dragon Ritual and Shinato's Ark to summon Paladin of White Dragon and Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!" An image of a knight in white armor on a white dragon appeared, but more realistic than the holograms from the Network.

"Anthea told me that in my new virtual form I can summon real monsters," Noah said. "Now let's see if she's right! I sacrifice my paladin to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

I was surprised. The last time I checked, there were only four Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards that were ever made, and three were owned by Seto Kaiba, Noah's stepbrother and the CEO of KaibaCorp. But there was the towering dragon, with its white skin and bright blue eyes.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Noah shouted, "attack with Burst Stream of Destruction!"

The blast of white lightning that came from the dragon's mouth was enough to immobilize the Carthage agent for a while, which was long enough for me to ask Noah,

"How come you have that monster? I thought only four of them existed!"

"Well, when my body materialized, my Deck followed suit," Noah said. "I put a digital copy of Blue-Eyes in my Deck as a reminder of my brothers."

"That's nice," I said.

"That's also not too bad," Anthea said. "After Yugi Muto became the King of Games, Seto Kaiba let Maximillion Pegasus, the man who invented the game Duel Monsters, make more Blue-Eyes White Dragons so that other Duelists would follow in his footsteps. Also, it was because Pegasus made more Dark Magicians, which is Yugi's best monster."

"Oh, I see."

Suddenly, Gustafv burst from the rubble and roared loudly. "I will not be defeated by a lowly pack of scoundrels like you!"

Charmeleon growled and breathed a stream of fire at him, much larger than the other one. In fact, when the blast hit, the flames twisted into the Japanese symbol for 'large'.

"Charmeleon used Fire Blast!" Amber cheered. "Way to go!"

Suddenly, the lizard gave a cry and started glowing brightly. We all gasped as the small creature grew taller, stronger, and mightier. Long wings grew from its back, and its tail grew even longer than it was before. When the glow disappeared, a new bigger Pokémon stood where the smaller one stood.

"Charmeleon's now a Charizard!" Amber cried with joy. "Now, Charizard, use Fire Blast!"

Once again, the fiery 'large' symbol shot towards Gustafv, along with attacks from Noah's monsters, but they were easily deflected by a new electric shield he created out of the fallen soldiers' shields. The blasts struck the ones who dealt the blasts, and Noah's dragon and angel vanished while Amber's Pokémon simply fell to the ground.

"Oh, no!" she cried. "Return!" she held out her Poké Ball, and the creature turned into a red beam of energy and was sucked into the ball. I gritted my teeth and looked at my wife, who nodded.

"You're all out of tricks now, fools," Gustafv laughed.

"Not exactly," I said.

"What?"

My wife came over to me, we held hands tightly, and we looked at Kahril in unison.

"Commencing upload, Scipio 01, Power limitation at fifty percent activate!"

"Commencing upload, Scipio 05, Power limitation at fifty percent activate!"

Suddenly, a volt of lightning surged up from our location, and when Gustafv looked at the spot where Anthea and I stood, he now saw two very different beings. One was a long-grey-haired magician in a long black cloak with a mechanical staff, and the other was a tall pink-haired white-robed angel with a radiance that would rival that of Heaven itself. These being were Anthea and myself, but with our hidden powers from XANA invoked. Our transformed state is known as "Scipio" the name coming from the ancient warrior of the Roman Empire who brought the end of Carthage and slew its chief general, Hannibal. The kids looked shocked yet amazed, but Gustafv looked very afraid.

"What…" he stuttered, "What is this?"

"Behold, Gustafv Kahril," I cried, in a strange mechanical voice, "the power of Scipio 01!"

"Along with the power of Scipio 05!" Anthea added.

With that, she blasted a ray of white light at him, and he fell long before I could reach him. When I did, I touched the bottom of my staff to the spot on his chest where his heart would be, and a stream of zeroes and ones flew from his body and into the staff. After the numbers vanished, cables flew from the tip of my staff and drained the fallen soldiers of their powers as well. When all was done, Anthea and I fell out of our transformations, and turned to the kids.

"It's over," I said, reassuringly.

"Wow," Amber said. "That was cool!"

"No kidding!" Noah said. "So that's what a Scipio looks like!"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well, I did make XANA; I obviously would have a plan should he turn against me."

"We had a plan as well," Gustafv laughed, rising to his feet. "Ours is a plan to eradicate your friends while we lead an army to rule the world!"

"What?" I growled.

"Even now," he continued, "your little daughter and her precious friends are trapped in our headquarters that will soon come down on their heads!"

"They found your headquarters?" I said. "Where is it?"

"You'll never get me to say anything to the likes of you!" he cried.

"Wrong answer," I said, and chopped the back of his head, knocking him out.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Amber asked.

"Night classes," I said, "plus I _was_ in the secret army."

"Oh, right," she said.

"Quickly," I said. "We have to get to the Cobra's headquarters and save the gang!"

"How will we find it?" Maria asked. "The only one who knew was Kahril, and he'd never tell us if he was conscious!"

"Simple," I said.

I went into the Skid and motioned for the others to follow me, which they did. I took a flash drive from my lab coat and plugged it into the console of the Skid.

"This flash drive has the data I took from Kahril," I said, "and his recent memories are in here as well. All we have to do is sift through the data until… Aha! Here it is!" The GPS map showed a location on the map of France near the France-Germany border.

"The base is in Strasbourg," I said. "Get ready to warp! Maria, activate the Emerald!"

"Right!" she said, pressing a big white button. "Chaos Control!"

The door closed, and a portal opened up from a light that shot from the nose of the Skid. We shot through the portal, and within a few seconds, we saw the inside of the Cobra base in Strasbourg. I saw the gang, apart from Jeremy, Aelita, and William, was stressing out at the collapsing building.

"So you can't do anything to stop the ten-ton building from falling on our heads?!" Odd yelled.

"Maybe they can't," I rang out, "but we can."

The gang jumped at the sound of my voice, but Jeremy and Aelita looked more surprised.

"Who is that?" Ulrich called out. "Show yourself!"

"Of course, Ulrich," I replied.

With that, they could see the portal open in the room, and I stopped the Skid right as we exited the vortex, which closed behind us. I could see the gang look at us in wonder.

"It's good to see you all again," I said.

"Who's in there?" Yumi asked.

"I suppose it's time we introduced ourselves," Anthea replied.

The door opened and Anthea, the kids, and I exited the ship and stood before the gang, who looked at us in amazement.

"Who is that?" Sissi whispered to William.

"I think that's…" he started.

"I don't believe it…" Yumi gasped.

"There's no way…" Odd gawked.

"It can't be…" Ulrich said.

"But it is." Jeremy said.

Aelita walked up to the two of us, shaking, but with awe as Anthea and I smiled.

"D-Dad?" she breathed. "M-Mom?"

I smiled. "Hello, Aelita."

**THE END**

* * *

**A/N: At last! I get to write these words! It's strange for me to say this, but I never finished one before, so there.**

**UPDATE: 9/6/2012 - I say this is done because the end of this story is where Chapter 13 of my first story, Return To the Past, ends. This was an in-between story from the beginning, kinda like Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. If you want to see what happens next, please read RTTP!**

**Please keep reading my fics! Please? :3**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


End file.
